Robert Henry Bird Jr. Obituary (1948

On Friday, December 9, 2022, Robert Henry Bird, Jr., devoted father, grandfather, friend, educator and hero passed away at age seventy-four. Born to Robert Senior and Joyce Reece in August 1948, Bob (known to most as “Bobby”) spent his youth in the Bay Area of California. Lovingly referred to as, “the best kid ever” by his mother, Bob kept busy during this time as an exemplary newspaper boy. He was so dedicated to this responsibility as a youth that he won many prizes, as well as several free trips to Disneyland. He also worked mowing his neighbor’s lawns, and enjoyed having adventures with his beloved sisters Valerie, Debbie, and Pamela. Raised with music in his home, Bob’s father sang in a barbershop quartet, and would often assign harmony parts for Bob and his sisters to sing as they traveled as a family in the car. Bob was recruited to play French horn in junior high by being the only student in his class who could correctly identify the instrument. He continued with the French horn through high school, although he was unable to be a part of the marching band as a freshman because there were no uniforms small enough to fit him. By the time he was a senior in 1966, he had finally grown into the uniform and became drum major. While in high school, Bob managed to find a borrowed, albeit incomplete, drum set to begin playing. A short time later, he was able to convince his father to cosign for a loan in order to purchase a higher quality set of drums. He later said that his dad made him promise “his life, his left foot, and his gizzard” to repay it. After successfully obtaining this drum set, Bob and his fellow musicians from school started a rock band, playing the hits of the day. This first band started with small gigs at places like dog shows, shopping malls, and school dances. Bob’s philosophy was to “just keep playing,” which led to regularly working gigs at nightclubs in the Bay Area of Northern California. His family were incredibly supportive of him, frequently coming out to his performances to watch him play. Bob’s continued efforts with different groups eventually led to sharing the stage with artists such as Tower of Power, The Grateful Dead, Neil Young, and Chuck Berry. While Bob was accomplishing all of this musically, he hadn’t forgotten about his education. All of these gigs allowed him to support himself through school at Chabot College, where he graduated with an Associate of Arts in 1969. After so many years playing rock n’ roll gigs in California, Bob found himself drawn to attend Brigham Young University in order to focus more fully on studying music. Having earned a favorable grade-point average at Chabot, Bob was accepted to BYU. He worked hard to earn his Bachelor in Arts in 1977, and was named Music Educator of the Year. This earned him his first job teaching at Dixon Junior High School in Provo, Utah. He remained teaching at Dixon for three years. After accepting his next teaching position at Mountain View, he earned his Master of Music from BYU in 1983. Now with an established life and career in Utah, Bob married Theresa Bates in November of 1986, with whom he lovingly raised three children. They were wonderful parents. Although he was already well into his thirties when he became a father, Bob took on this role with a dedication and enthusiasm only he could offer. He was incredibly involved with his family, creating a beautiful, unique, and colorful home life that often included spontaneous living room dance parties with his wife and kids. These would often involve costumes. Bob never missed an opportunity to turn up the music and enjoy a moment of fun with his family. Bob went on to spend over thirty years sharing his passion for music. He taught at various schools including Mountain View High School, Snow College, Utah Valley University, as well as Richfield Jr. High and High School. He had a profound talent for developing rewarding and impactful relationships with his students and was even named Utah Music Educator of the year by the Utah Music Educators Association in 2001. Bob was devoted to enriching the lives of everyone around him, especially those of his children. A truly spectacular and present dad, they would later describe him as a deeply caring father, and a great listener. He spent much of his time on projects for his kids including but not limited to helping create extravagant blanket forts, fixing broken toys, constructing an epic go-kart, and much more. He went on to be just as an involved and loving figure for his grandchildren. Bob was best known for his dedication to playing and teaching music, his incredible talents, his seemingly endless knowledge of random facts, his infectious laughter and smile, keen wit and intellect, an aversion to authority, rugged individualism, and making his kids laugh through various means including inventing a bug called the “yellow-bellied sap sucker,” and regularly pretending to be fluent in German. He is survived by his mother Joyce, sister Valerie, sons Mathew and Clayton, daughter Meghan, and six grandchildren. A funeral service for Bobby Bird will be held at 5:00 p.m., Sunday, December 18, 2022 at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Chapel at 1810 West Springwater Drive, Orem, Utah. Live broadcast link here: https://youtu.be/kDXNqRshisc Condolences may be expressed at www.bergmortuary.com and memories of Bob can be shared at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiWQbpUM8hMXd7L_F0ux8n23CWvnNDs-O26Rn3cyfQz_7EJA/viewform.