Memorial services were held on July 19 at Miramar National Cemetery for 78-year-old Robert “Bob” Williams III, a man who epitomized the best qualities of a person off and on the soccer pitch.
Williams was a standout soccer player in the mid-1960s when he attended Mission Bay High School and in the early 1970s at San Diego State University. He also proudly served his country in the Navy during the Vietnam War.
“My dad went to Vietnam before he came back to attend college,” said his daughter Nicole. “I remember my dad would take me to his Sunday soccer games when I was little. He would put me on a blanket with some of the wives of those playing and they would look after me while I would watch him play. I met all of his soccer crew when I was a baby.”
A father of three, Williams worked as a firefighter and then as a letter carrier with the United States Postal Service for 30 years making it a custom to hand out holiday cards for the people on his route.
“Soccer was his life and he was so addicted to it that we would joke that it was his opium,” Nicole added. “He played regularly twice a week on 50-year-old plus clubs and kept going until about his first round of chemotherapy treatment.”
Williams resided in a condo complex in Rancho Peñasquitos and had other passions including golf, camping, listening to music, and spending time with family. Many of his neighbors were among those who attended the memorial service along with his long-time friend, Jim Cornelius, who worked as a cartoon artist for the SD Reader and would make drawings of Williams for those happy holidays cards that were handed out.
“Jim brought the most recent 10 or 15 years of postcards he made and we all started crying because he made one for this year that really got to us,” said Nicole. That last postcard was titled “Bob On One Last Delivery” showing Williams walking into the sunset.
Among the 40 people present at the service was Phil Gloria, who is the father of San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria. Williams is survived by his spouse, Anne; mother, sister, Victoria; children, Darek, Colin, and Nicole; and grandchildren, Alina and Colin Jr.
