Robert Paul Christman

Robert Paul Christman passed away on April 20, 2024 at the age of 98 in Greensboro, NC.  He was born February 10, 1926 at the family farmhouse in Berks County, PA, son of A. Newton and Aimee [Stoudt] Christman. He attended a one-room schoolhouse through 8th grade and helped his grandfather Calvin with farming and milling at the 200 year-old family grist mill. He graduated high school in 1943 and was drafted into the Navy in March 1944. Bob served as an Electronic Technician’s Mate 2nd class on the USS Indian Island, a liberty ship outfitted to repair electronic and radar equipment, as part of the planned U.S. invasion force of Japan. However eight days out of Hawaii the atom bombs were dropped.  One of his subsequent duties included a humanitarian mission to deliver food 500 miles up the Yangtze River to a Catholic mission in Japanese-occupied China.

After being discharged in June 1946, Bob attended Lafayette College, in one of only two newly created nuclear engineering programs in the nation, graduating in 1950 with a B.S. in Engineering Physics. He received a commission in the Public Health Service to work in the Radiology Health Service in Cincinnati, where he did training in the Radiation Protection program. Later he collected data for the Industrial Hygiene unit, which would ultimately be used for setting OSHA standards for workplace sound exposure. Bob left the Public Health Service at the rank of Commander in 1956 and took a position as nuclear   engineer at the Westinghouse Bettis Atomic Plant outside Pittsburgh, PA. As a subcontractor to the Navy, he helped start up several nuclear submarines and led the group that designed the nuclear power plant’s biological shield for the aircraft carrier Nimitz . He retired in 1993 after 37 years.  Bob had a lifelong passion for investing in the stock market and helped other family members with investments as well.

Bob married Clara [Winzer] Christman in 1951 and together they had four children – Karen Morgan [Rick] of MI, Keith Christman of NY, Karel Hemler [Tom] of CO, and Kathy Christman [Mark Matlock] of SC. Bob was a member of Ruthfred Lutheran Church in Bethel Park, PA for more than 65 years and a stalwart member of the church choir for most of that time.   His first wife Clara directed that choir for half of those years before preceding him in death in 1986. They shared a strong faith and love of music.  He has six grandchildren and six great grandchildren from that union. Bob met his second wife Lorraine [Larson] Christman at church and they married in 1990, adding her two children, Susan McDonald [Mackey] of NC and Don Larson [Christine] of PA, and ultimately three more grandchildren (who called him “Bob-O”) to his family. He and Lorraine enjoyed traveling together and having Sunday brunch with church friends. They relocated to the Well-Spring Retirement Community in Greensboro, NC in 2020 where Lorraine continues to reside and receive care.

A funeral service at the Ruthfred Lutheran Church will be held May 4 at 11 am. Interment will follow at the Bethel Cemetery. In lieu of flowers donations can be made in Bob’s memory to the Ruthfred Lutheran Pastor’s Fund or the Bethel Cemetery for landscape enhancements. Donations can be mailed to the Bethel Cemetery Company at 2999 Bethel Church Road in Bethel Park, PA 15102.  Please indicate “in memory of Bob Christman” on the memo line.

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