Robert Wayne Maxey, Jr., was born on March 11, 1952, in Columbus, Ohio, to Robert and Patricia Maxey. Robert (“Bob”) considered Dover, Delaware, his hometown, but he also lived in various cities in Ohio and Pennsylvania before his family settled in St. Charles, Missouri.

After graduating from St. Charles High School in 1970, Bob attended the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Trulaske College of Business and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business management. This was where his life-long love for all things Mizzou began. His most recent car even sported “MU Made” vanity license plates.

There were the Mizzou sports. His uncanny recall of game stats, like when Mizzou pulled the upset of the year in 1975 and beat Alabama 20 to 7, would make a professional sportscaster jealous. Because of the pandemic, Bob decided to skip getting football tickets in 2020-21, which would have been his 50th season of rooting for the Tigers.

And there were all the friends he met when he lived at Williams House dorm in McDavid Hall where he was known as Slick because of his smooth nature. Bob was a natural-born social director who enjoyed hosting Williams House reunions, even though he’d proclaim that each was going to be the last.

After graduating from Mizzou, Bob moved to St. Louis to work in the trucking industry. He attended Lindenwood College, where he earned his Master of Business Administration degree in 1982. He spent 14 years working for ABF Freight Systems, Inc., which transported him back to Columbia in 1990. In August 2004, he became a health physics technician at the University of Missouri’s Research Reactor Center. He collected data and analyzed results to provide for the safe handling and shipping of radioactive materials and radionuclides intended for use in research, medical diagnosis, and treatment until his retirement in December 2017.

Bob was a man of history. He never drove through the state of Illinois without stopping by the home of Lincoln. Bob was a member of the Mid-MO Civil War Roundtable and visited many Civil War battlegrounds with his brother Brad. He also traveled to Charleston, SC; the Grand Canyon, AZ; Yellowstone, WY; Europe; and Ixtapa, Mexico. His most life-changing trip was to Hunan Province, China, where he and Kathy adopted their daughter Leah.

He was so proud of everything Leah did and was an avid soccer dad. Of course, he was thrilled when she decided to stay in Columbia and attend his alma mater where she’s finishing up the 150-hour Bachelor of Science in Accounting/Master of Accounting program this May. He was so very passionate about all of his family and friends.

Bob, a self-described COVID long-hauler, died on March 26, 2021, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis with his siblings by his side. He is survived by daughter Leah Maxey; former wife Kathy Maxey; sister Reesa Varone; brother Brad (JoAnn) Maxey; nephew Craig (Candy) Varone; nieces Andrea (Fermin) Soto, Laura Varone, and Emily (Chad) Connoy; and enough cousins, grand nieces and nephews, great grandnephews, and friends to fill Faurot Field. A memorial service will be held on May 1st, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. at the Missouri United Methodist Church, where he was an active member of the men’s group. For additional information regarding the service, go to https://fb.me/e/20dTmX2GO