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Today's Featured Biography

Robert Brobst

Retirement Lifestyle You can have 'Endless Summer' Michigan / Florida.

A Retiree's nightmare: Working Dreams!

Class A retirement. We dream of Retirement, it arrives sooner than we think.

Retirement, it is a state of mind, a break from responsibility, easy living. It can be the best thing for some people and it can be unpleasant to others. Some do not like the word retirement. Some like to use the words a new beginning or another chapter in life's adventure. Change of Life-style, what ever you call it, I like it so far. I have adjusted to not working and enjoy it.

I 'retired' March 31, 2005 after 42 years with the same small company. Pat, my wife "retired" ten years ago, 1998, after a career as a RN for 27 years with a specialty in pediatrics, to attend to her flower gardens and adjust to being a step mom to 4 grown children and step grandmother to 9 at the time and now 14 grandchildren. Quite a shock for Pat, she did not have any children when we met..

We bought our Motorhome in 2003 and love traveling in it. Prior to 2000 I never even considered a motorhome a possibility in my life. And then thinking about retirement and what I would like to do, travel and see this beautiful country of ours, is when a motorhome came into mind. September 2003 Pat and I went to the campers show in Novi, Michigan and within three weeks we were the owners of a slightly used (almost new, ten months old) 2003 Itasca Sunrise 36M motorhome with 8,628 miles on it. My first experience driving a MH, drove it home to Michigan from Indiana 360 miles. Enjoyed it. Now we have a total of 33,000 mile to date. It is 36 ft. class A with 350 sq.ft. of living space. The original owners lost a lot of money and we got a pretty good deal.

We will keep our house, we have a great location on the water, where we can keep our boat on a hoist behind the house, life is good! Also Pat loves her flowers and flower gardens around the house.

We are in southeast Michigan, north and east of Detroit about 42 miles. We are on a canal in a subdivision of canal lots. The canals are 120' wide in our 'Venice of Michigan' off the North Channel of the Saint Clair River just north of Lake Saint Clair.

I bought the lot in 1984, designed and built the house in 1985-86 moved in 1986. That was a dream and goal of mine to design and also build a house by myself since I was very young. Kind of a hobby of mine, building houses and additions on to many homes in the past. Thought I might continue building homes in retirement after working in sales, however now I do not want to work that hard.

There are many wonders of God and Nature to take a look at and use our five senses, Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch and Taste to enjoy life. We need to use all of them while we can.

I realize that life's journey is taken a day at a time and while tomorrow may come, I can't afford to pass up this day and now for it. I will make every effort to be happy and treat others as I wish to be treated.

Pat and I don't consider ourselves campers we have a nice condo on wheels we move around this country to sleep in our own bed, shower and use our own bathroom when and wherever you are. Pat and I spent our first night at a Super Wal-Mart March 2004 in Lantana Florida. We were a little worried at first but Wal-Mart had security all night long and allows you to park your RV overnight. The next morning I said to Pat that her and I are officially Gypsy's. You cannot beat the sightseeing from the height of your seats in a class A motorhome. We look forward to traveling our United States in the motorhome in Class A style.


I am somewhat of a diy kind of person my do-it-yourself projects were building projects on the homes that I owned and they included: In 1966 built a Shed at my first new house in Westland. 1969 built a family room addition and bricked my first fireplace along with doing the construction for the addition myself at our second new house in Livonia. 1972 built a family room, a 2nd brick fireplace and 1st floor laundry room addition, this project added 450 sq.ft. to our third new house in Plymouth.

1985 designed and built our fourth new house myself, doing the rough carpentry myself and acting as my own contractor for the other trades. This is the house we live in today, it is 3,000 sq. ft. and we are on a 120' wide canal off of the Saint Clair River. Great place for boating and fishing, if that is what you like.

1989 designed and built a two unit duplex home for our son, he and his wife had our first grandchild, she will be 21 years old this year, boy time flies.

2006 remodeled the master bath adding a second sink and vanity that Pat wanted. Pat keeps reminding me the 'new house' I refer to is now 22 years old. Well I still think of it as the New House.

Learned how to do most of the building trades, bricklaying, carpentry, electrical, plumbing etc.

Wanted to be an architect however I ended up as a 'salesman' and managed a small company for 42 years until my retirement in 2005.



Fondest memories are Vacations to Nassau in the Bahamas 1972, Florida 1974 and again 1983. South Higgins Lake State Park on camping and boating vacations 1977-1979 with the family. Acapulco Mexico 1992 and many boating trip Vacations on the Great Lakes every year 1980-1992. Family Vacations with the children and grandchildren, 1997 Cancun Mexico 14 attending, 2001 Cancun Mexico again 17 attending, 2004 Orlando Florida 25 attending and 2005 South Higgins Lake State Park.

Other interests include genealogy. I was surprised to find out I am the 6th Great Grandson of Johann Michael PROBST who arrived in this country, actually before it was a country, in 1732 at Philadelphia. The name Brobst and Probst are pretty much interchangeable.

He came to America in 1732, arriving in Philadelphia on the pink (ship) John and William on October 17, 1732. He came with his brother Philipp Jacob (and family) and his sister Elisabetha Margaretha (and her husband). Since winter's onset was near, they probably remained in Philadelphia over the winter, gathering supplies and equipment, and left for the Allemaengle in early spring.

He received his citizenship papers on September 10, 1761 in Philadelphia.

Not many families can say they have been here in America for 276 years.

I am proud to be an American!

Shirley J (RANKEY) Brobst, Dec 1945 - Dec 1992. Shirley and I were married Sept 4 1965 she was a member of the Class of 1964 at Wayne Memorial High School. We lost Shirley at the very young age of 46. Shirley and I had four children Bob, Mike, Bill and Brenda.

Bob Brobst

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