Dr. Robert Louis Illnik December 19, 1922 - March 27, 2011

Dr. Robert Louis Illinik went home to his Lord the morning of March 27 at the Redmond Health Care Center after a long decline. He was eighty-eight.

Dr. Bob was born premature in St. Louis and not expected to live beyond infancy, but he graduated from Normandy High School in St. Louis, then earned a B.S. from the University of Missouri with a major in Industrial Education and Minor in Social Studies. He received his M.S. at the University of Southern California with a major in Educational Administration and minor in Curriculum.

Though the armed services turned him down for health reasons, Bob served his country during WWII as a journeyman machinist, helping to build the Curtiss-Wright Corporation's famous P-40 War Hawk. Bob not only milled the forward gun turret turntable on the Battleship Missouri, where the WWII Japanese surrender was signed, he redesigned and machined a malfunctioning valve on the first heart-lung machine built on the West Coast. His blood then primed the machine for its first test.

When the space program began, Dr. Bob machined a part for one of the original four unmanned Moon Landers designed to crash on the moon. He kidded that the part was still there "because the Moon Lander crashed."

Though Dr. Illinik held nine California teaching credentials, grades 1-college, he spent most of his career teaching college vocational classes. He was a tenured professor at Compton Jr. College, Compton, California, where an accident in his shop left him with a serious head injury that forced him to relearn to read and regain his manual dexterity. Feeling that he was unable to teach machine shop safely, he decided to earn a Doctor of Education at UCLA in order to go into school administration.

In 1967, while working on his doctoral dissertation, Bob's advisor at UCLA suggested that he join the American Vocational Association (AVA) team in Turkey. He spent two years there with AVA, constructing a national machine shop apprentice program for Turkey, and teaching Turkish teachers machine shop procedures. His doctoral dissertation has since been published in five languages.

In 1968, Bob and Carol Jenkins Boliou were married in Ankara, Turkey, where Carol worked as a GS-7 clerk/secretary. At the end of Bob's contract they returned home from Turkey to the United States, first living a month in Greece, then driving four additional months throughout Western Europe as Bob gathered dissertation research materials. Carol's two youngest children and their Turkish cat traveled with them.

When back in the United States, Dr. Illinik taught and supervised teachers at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Oregon State University, Corvallis. Until the programs ended, Bob was the coordinator of vocational education for the Alameda County Schools, then the superintendent of a regional occupation center.

After moving to Salem, Oregon, Dr. Bob taught vocational education and was a department head at Salem Academy.

Awarded a Life Membership with the American Vocational Association, Inc., now the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), he also received an Epsilon Pi Tau Laureate Citation, a Francis L. Bacon Fellowship at UCLA, and was junior college Industrial Educator of the Year in Los Angeles County. He was a member of the Oregon Industrial Association and the California Industrial Education Association.

Always willing to volunteer, Bob was awarded by the American Red Cross for his hands-on contributions, and the Central Oregon Council on Aging for his stint as a Dial-a-ride driver. He was a member of Kiwanis and a representative to the United Fund.

In the mid-nineteen eighties, Bob spent two years in Zimbabwe, Africa, teaching vocational teachers. His Turkish and African experiences were highlights of his life. In 1987, Bob participated in two work-and-witness trips to Colombia for the Nazarene Church, the last to Cartagena, where he helped Carol paint a baptistery mural.

Dr. Robert Illinik was a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He is survived by Carol, his wife of forty-one years; by son Carl Illinik; by stepsons, Paul Boliou of Little Rock, AR; Dale Boliou of Paradise, CA; Dr. Neal Boliou of Boise, ID; stepdaughter Jill Moore of Merritt Island, FL.; and by many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Bob and Carol moved to Sisters in 1989, first living in Crossroads, then in The Pines.

A Celebration of Dr. Bob's life will be held Saturday, June 4, 11:30 a.m. at Sisters Church of the Nazarene, 67130 Harrington Loop Rd., Sisters, Oregon.

Contributions may be made to the American Red Cross.