*****************************

Robert Alexander Purdie was born in the village of Smyrna located in beautiful upstate New York. At the age of nine his family came to California. He briefly attended Roosevelt School in Taft and when his family came to Bakersfield they located on 1002 - 33rd St. He attended Emerson School.

At the Kern County Union Hi he played clarinet in the school band under the direction of Harold Burt the year they marched in the Rose Parade at Pasadena. Later he played in the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra.

Before WWII he studied at the Curtis Wright Technical Institute in Glendale learning about aircraft engines. He was deferred from active service in WWII because of his essential service of testing airplane engines at McClellan AFB in Sacramento.

Bob has used his mechanical and structural skills in building several of the houses we have lived in and obtaining a masonry contractor's license. As a consequence, he has built numerous large warehouses and commercial buildings in Sacramento and Southern California.

February 1992