Robert Gale Kittner

Robert Gale Kittner passed away peacefully on February 11, 2025 with his daughter Lee and granddaughter Meagan by his side. Robert was born on June 1, 1922 to Charles Gale and Julia Mae (nee Cooper) Kittner in Clifton, NJ. He will become the proud father of six children, grandfather to eleven and live to see his great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.

During his childhood Robert lived in Clifton, New Jersey and spent summers at his grandmother’s hotel, the Aberdeen, in the seaside town of Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Here he was free to explore while his mother and aunts helped his grandmother. His parents sold their home in Clifton and moved to Bloomfield, NJ for Robert’s high school years because the schools there were better. Robert did well in Bloomfield though there was the time he, with friends played hooky to go to New York City to hear Frank Sinatra sing in the Village only to be caught by a truant officer while waiting in line to get in.

Following high school, Robert entered college majoring in mechanical engineering. Two years later he left school to enlist on December 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor which propelled the U.S into World War II. After being taught to fly in a bi-plane, which he said were the only planes that it really felt like flying in, he became a flight instructor, training French pilots in Albany, Georgia. This assignment apparently felt so dangerous that to avoid getting killed, he asked his company commander if he could transfer to the real war. Robert's request was honored and he was transferred to the remote Aleutian Islands, an archipelago that extends westward roughly 1,200 miles from the Alaskan mainland into the northern Pacific Ocean and is the border between Pacific and the Bering Sea. The weather and the distances flown by the pilots here made flying a challenge. He recounted a time once of having to land the plane he was flying in a lumber yard between stacks of logs after running out of gas before reaching the base. At the end of the war he was assigned as an aide-de-camp to General Davies and promoted to 1st Lieutenant. Thinking that the Generals would go home first he was not entirely unhappy with his new assignment.

After the war Robert returned to Rutgers University and earned a degree in Business Administration. Following his graduation he worked at Western Electric in Kearney, NJ in wage policies and practices. In 1951 he moved to Vermont and built a ski lodge called the Wits End, building the lodge’s huge beautiful stone fireplace with his father. Later he became the assistant manager of the Lake Minnewaska Mountain Houses in New York State. Eventually he landed with Sheraton Hotels working at the main office in Boston Massachusetts. Living on the South Shore he purchased his first sailboat, SAM. He sailed with his younger kids during the summer and skied with them in the winter. After joining the International Division Robert and his wife Nance spent the next twenty years living abroad, first in Lebanon where he was able to sail in the morning and ski in the afternoon, then briefly in Greece, then England, then Belgium, then India, and then in England again. As Sheraton’s Vice President for South Asia he traveled extensively.

After his retirement they returned to the United States taking up residence on a thirty-three acre property in East Wallingford, Vermont. For thirteen years after retiring they headed overseas every summer to live on their sailboat, SAM III. Often joined by family and friends they sailed the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Aegean, and the Adriatic dry docking SAM III at the end of each stay to wait for their return the following year to continue their journey.

In the years Robert and Nance lived in Vermont he was a Trustee and President of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation, a Board Member serving on the Building and Planning Committees of the College of St. Joseph, a Deacon at Grace Congregational Church, a Trustee with the Vermont Library Trustees Association where he served as a member of the Steering Committee and the Conference Planning Committee, a Board member of Gilbert Hart Library, a Treasurer of the Rutland City Rotary, member of the Wallingford Rotary, a member of the Vermont Council on the Humanities, and a Deacon at Wallingford Congregational Church. Robert used to joke that he should go back to work, he wasn’t as busy then. Indeed a few years after his retirement he started a consulting firm with an overseas associate that specialized in aspects of hotel design that did work in the Middle East and South Asia. He also enjoyed gatherings with family and friends, traveling, snowmobiling, and skiing which he did until the age of 86 and the move to Florida.

Robert’s interest in and support of libraries continued after he and Nance moved to Florida. He became a longtime Board Member of the Bloomingdale Regional Library. Settling in their new home also meant finding a new church. After visiting several they settled on St Andrew’s United Methodist Church and joined in 2008. At St Andrew’s they found community, made many friends and participated in many activities, including Joy Group, Travel Group, Discovery Class, Friday Morning Men’s Prayer Breakfast, the Vitality Respite Group. Robert and daughter Lee even took a trip to Israel. Robert found joy in Sunday dinners at the home of daughter Lee and her husband Riley, outings with friends, visits from his kids that lived up North, exploring the area and trying new things. In 2022 all six of his Children, his eleven Grandchildren and his Great-Grandchildren gathered with his friends to celebrate his 100th birthday. Robert was / is well loved.

Robert was preceded in death by his wife Dr. Nance Fain Kittner, and his brother Charles S. Kittner.

He is survived by his six children, Shirley “Lee” Tucker and her husband, Riley M. Tucker, Allan “Mac” Kittner and his wife Lynne, Dorothy “Smokie” Kittner and her husband Harry M. Anderson, Charles “Chuck” Kittner, Julia M. Wakelee and her husband Chuck Wakelee, Margaret Kittner Bethel and her husband Jay Bethel; By eleven grandchildren, Melinda, Charis, Galen, Meagan, Robert, Matthew, Margaret, Benjamin, Irene, Julia, and John; By sixteen great-grandchildren Prescott, Savannah, Mishell, Kristina, Joe, Olivia, Harper, Nicole, Arlo, Ency, Nari, Gemma, Rose, Ann, Hunter, and Calvin;

By three great-great-grandchildren Riley, Ellaria, and Leanna:

A Memorial Service for Robert celebrating his long and full life will be held on Saturday, March 22, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary of St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church, 3315 South Bryan Road, Brandon, FL 33511. A reception will follow in the Great Room of St Andrew’s Family Life Center.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to the Vitality Respite Center or the College Scholarship fund both at St. Andrew’s UMC, 3315 South Bryan Road, Brandon, F 33511, phone 813-698-69849 www.saumc.net