Robert B. Waters

Robert B. Waters, a longtime South Jersey businessman – and a great husband, father and grandfather – died Jan. 17 in Flemington. He was 87. For nearly 40 years, he owned and ran Home Handyman Center in Pleasantville.

Bob Waters was born and raised in Syracuse, N.Y. He was an Eagle Scout, a graduate of Princeton University and an Army veteran of World War II. After the war, he married Suzanne Somers, of Margate, whom he had met during a summer family vacation in the Adirondacks in 1940. They settled in South Jersey, and Bob went to work for Sue’s father, Warren Somers, at the Atlantic City Lumber Co. They lived in Atlantic County for nearly 60 years, first in Northfield, then in Absecon and Linwood.

Bob opened Home Handyman in 1958. It was a “home center” store, years ahead of its time, anticipating Home Depot and similar big-box chains of today. With Bob managing and Sue keeping the books, it thrived until they retired and sold the business in the late 1990s. It closed within a year.

Bob was active in the community. He served on the Northfield school board for about 10 years in the 1950s and 1960s. He was on the board of directors of First National Bank of Absecon. After he retired, he volunteered as tutor in local schools and as a literacy tutor.

Until slowed by age, Sue and Bob were adventurous travelers. They bicycled widely in the U.S., Europe and New Zealand. They hiked and backpacked in the Appalachians, Rockies and Sierra Nevada. They trekked in the Himalayas. They skied (mostly cross-country) in Norway, the U.S. and Canada. And for many years they organized and presided over a family ski trip somewhere in the Rockies over Christmas; these annual trips did much to knit 15 members and three generations of a close family even closer.

In 2003, they moved to Meadow Lakes, a retirement community in Hightstown. More recently, they moved to an assisted living facility in Flemington, near their daughter Suzanne (Kip) Rebick.

Bob is survived by his wife of 64 years, Suzanne Somers Waters, of Flemington; a brother, George, of Rome, N.Y.; a sister, Elizabeth McNish, of Plainfield, N.J.; daughter Kip and son-in-law Charles Rebick, of Annandale; son Rob Waters and daughter-in-law Eileen Heyes, of Raleigh, N.C.; daughter Chris Waters and son-in-law Michael Miller, of Manlius, N.Y.; and seven grandchildren: Sarah Rebick of Boulder, Colo.; Josh Rebick, of Burlington, Vt.; Jeremy and Christopher Waters of Raleigh, N.C.; Hannah Miller of Cambridge, Mass., and Tovah and Eli Miller of Manlius, N.Y.

Friends are invited to join the family in a celebration of Bob's life at Kip's house on Saturday, January 29, 2011 between 1 and 5 PM. To honor Bob’s love of words and reading, memorial contributions may be made to Literacy Volunteers Association Cape-Atlantic, 743 N. Main St., Pleasantville, NJ 08232, online at www.lvacapeatlantic.com

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of the Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home, 147 Main Street, Flemington, NJ. Please visit www.holcombefisher.com for further information or to send condolences.