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Deceased Classmate: Robert Mills
Date Of Birth: March-1942
Date Deceased: June-2016
Age at Death: 74
Classmate City: Sarasota
Classmate State: FL
Classmate Country: USA
Survived By: He is survived by his wife Patricia of 50 plus years, two daughters, Christina Mills, Lynne Mills, 3 grandchildren of Knoxville and a brother, Richard of FL and TX.
Robert Mills, 74, of Sarasota, formerly of Cincinnati, passed suddenly to eternal life on June 9, 2016. He is survived by his wife Patricia of 50 plus years, two daughters, Christina Mills, Lynne Mills, 3 grandchildren of Knoxville and a brother, Richard of FL and TX. His kind, loving gentle ways; his positive attitude and especially his laugh and upbeat nature will be greatly missed. He was a graduate of the University of Maryland and a brother of Sigma Chi. He spent his retirement years actively serving the Community. Sarasota County Parks and especially Palmer Ranch will not be the same without him. His tireless effort, dedication to Community has made for a better place. A Celebration of Life will be held at a future date. Donations to the American Heart Assn., the Salvation Army or charity of your choice are appreciated.
Our Friend Bob “Otto” Mills
by David Appleton, October 1, 2016
Otto died suddenly last June.
The memory is very fuzzy but I think it was in 8th grade that I first met Bob Mills on a field in Edgemont Park, just across the street from the homes of Buddy Ducker, Liz Mackensie, and Imogene Kennedy, and across the street from Edgemont School of course. The occasion was a pickup football game between George Inness and Mt. Hebron junior high schools arranged by GI’s Tony Massi and someone from Mt. H., maybe Toby Wesson or John Wharton.
The rag tag bunch of us from GI showed up with minimal skills as did a similar group with equally fledgling skills from Mt. Hebron. We all sported whatever football gladiatorial attire we could find to engage in tackle football… pads and helmets optional. We all hoped to star someday on Clary Anderson’s and Butch Fortunato’s Montclair High School football team, following in the footsteps of the likes of Aubrey Lewis, a local folk hero and pioneering super athlete whose star ascended at MHS and Notre Dame during our junior high school years.
In contrast to these motley garbed kids on both sides of the football, Bob Mills showed up fully outfitted in a newly minted green (actually Kelly green) football uniform he had received as a birthday gift (I think). He stood out! He struck a pose, football in hand over his head in pass mode. He reminded us of Otto Graham! He was then henceforth and forever after, and to this day, known to friends as Otto Mills.
In Montclair High School a couple of years later I met “Otto” again in late August football practice. Our minimal skills had not improved much, but those of others like Tony Massi and Toby Wesson and many other veterans of that Edgemont match had matured. We (Otto, me and many others) spent our high school football years on the bench. Bob, John Wharton, Henry Stake and I called ourselves “The Four Horsemen” (of what apocalypse I do not know) as we sat and watched games from the end of the bench seldom getting on the field…. So much the better for our MHS Bulldogs. We watched, cracked jokes, and cheered our Bulldogs on…except for the time Yogi Berra showed up walking the track before the MHS stands and behind the players bench on which we perched! Thence we rose and cheered the Yogi with our backs turned to the field, joining the MHS Fans in the stands in shouts of adulation ignoring the play on the field. Clary & Butch were not happy.
Otto and I grew to be close friends through these terrifying teenage high school years. Our raging hormones were bad enough, but the Cold War threatened God knew what. We all were scared, well schooled in “duck & cover” and perhaps resigned. Some of us lived dangerously with the future looking grim to nonexistent. We remained friends.
A group of us decided to bring in the new decade on December 31st 1959 in the “place to be” Times Square. But the crowd was horrendous so we bought some booze and hopped the bus back to Montclair. As the ball dropped ushering in the 60s we were on a DeCamp bus somewhere on route 3 in fragrant Secaucus. As dawn broke, 1/1/1960 we found ourselves puking drunk in Jack Hook’s mom’s apartment vowing abstinence in perpetuity. This vow proved more honored in the breach.
The night after we graduated from MHS was also memorable. Bob’s father rented a Corvette for him to drive around parading his success in what many thought an enterprise destined for dubious success, graduating from HS. He did! We did! We all wanted a shot at the wheel, but Bob shouted “10 cents a mile!” Those were the days! Bob drove that Corvette into NYC. I followed in my father’s Valiant. Things blurred from there… but I think we shot pool at Ame’s Billiards made famous in “The Hustler.”
Bob went to U MD, I went to Morris Harvey in W. VA along with Sanford Sherman and a few other Montclair incorrigibles. I visited Bob a few times at U of M, ate a few of Cy’s “Death Balls” on the strip, and once slept in the extraordinarily funky smelling Sigma Chi dorm room with maybe 50+ farting snoring drunk “brothers”.
And later I was able to attend Bob and Pat’s magnificent Wedding on Long Island in 1964, getting leave from US Navy to do so. Otto was fond of referring to Pat as “Legs” due to some beauty event she had won. She was a lovely bride and they enjoyed a 50+ year marriage. But then we drifted further apart, as with all our fledgling life forming MHS friends.
We just missed being neighbors in the ‘80s. Before Bob and Pat retired to Sarasota, they lived in New Britain, PA just prior to when Wendy and I moved to nearby New Hope in 1983.
Years later, during my sailing career, I visited Florida many times a couple of which gave me the opportunity to look up Otto and Pat for a visit. Once I was able to enjoy their hospitality for very pleasant overnight stay in their splendid retirement home.
Another visit in 2006 featured lunch in a Bradenton FL with Captain Jon Pederson another good friend of MHS 60 vintage. I had just sailed a delivery from Granada to Bradenton and, on my way into the area, called Capt. Jon who lived on Anna Maria Island. Jon sailed this area regularly and offered local guidance for the shoal waters entering the Manatee River new to me. We also arranged lunch with Otto, after which my mate Tom Giampietro snapped this picture.
Just after Tommy took this picture, or rather just before, Otto said “stand in front of me, I’m too fat!” This next photo resulted.
We laughed heartily, perhaps the most painful laugh of my life. You see, the night before I had attempted to chase off a bunch of boisterously obnoxious teenagers carousing around the docks near my boat and got myself beaten up, suffering 3 broken ribs, a concussion and a night in the Manatee County lock up. Laughing with broken ribs is not an experience I wish to repeat, nor is dealing with Florida constabulary!
I had several phone conversations with “Otto” and email exchanges as I tried to convince him to bring Pat to the latest flurry of MHS 60 reunions, last May being most recent. But they had other commitments.
Pat emailed in September to let me know Bob died suddenly last June. I was deeply saddened as I’m sure his many friends, colleagues and family are. He had a good life and enjoyed the benefit of an excellent sense of humor which he shared generously. My last laugh with Otto was quite painful, but I cherish it. Otto’s laugh echo’s in my memory. I savor all my memories of Robert “Otto” Mills, as do many others.
David Appleton
October 1, 2016
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