Stanford Friends Remember the Best of Bob (Amish Bob as he was fondly known in Branner Hall for his dashing beard)

These statements are paraphrased from a gathering in Bob and Lynn’s room, Tuesday January 8^th, 2001.  Friends of Bob over the past 3 ½ years at Stanford came to meet the Frezzas and share some memories.

Leah Sullivan (lived with Bob for 2 years) “You could just see the love he gave Lynn.  It was wonderful”

Rebecca Price “Before we even opened Columbae for the year, Bob, Lynn, and Erich had already broken!”

Lauren Hitz both concurred “Bob always said he’d hire me someday if I didn’t find a job”

 “One of Bob’s master plans was to buy out his Singaporean roommate’s contract with the government for $200,000 so he wouldn’t have to go to the army”

“Freshman year Bob said he wanted to makes lots of money and then go back to Lawrenceville to teach” 

Becky Blanchard “Bob’s guitar was the soundtrack to sunny days freshman year.”

Megan Hirsch “Once I invited him to walk to the post office to get some sunlight, he didn’t get out too much J”

Haane Massarotti “You could always smell him burning incense”

Josh Cohen “He always had a BIG SMILE and played guitar on the lawn”

Jose Paterno “ I remember sitting in his comfy chair freshman year. I also remember sophomore year running into Bob at the Mountain View DMV. We were next to each other in this ridiculously long line. I was impatient. Everyone else in line was also frustrated and impatient. But Bob was the only one with a calm reassuring smile the entire time.”

Bill Frezza added “Bob was the King of Incremental permission. Always starting slowly, but cleverly, and getting what he wanted.”

Liz Forwand “I drove across the country with Bob.  Remember me, my car died in your driveway but you fixed it”

Farzad Alemi “The thing I remember most is his confidence in life”

“Also, when he found out I was pre-med, after just knowing him, my first roommate at Stanford, he said ‘If you wanna be a doctor then inject me with this insulin.’”

 “How does this guy make college seem so easy.  He gets everything done and still has so much fun”

Bill Frezza added “He squeezed a lot out of life.  He got 27 hours out of every day and still slept.”

Bob McGrew “I remember him driving really fast”

Zach Frenz “It was nice to have another diabetic in the house.  He showed me his pump, and I felt outdated with my syringes”

Bill Frezza added “Bob never let diabetes define him.  I was very proud of him for that.  It helped his confidence too.  He started injecting himself at age 11.”

Drew Hotson “I just remember him as the wise one”

BOB WAS THE FRIENDLIEST COMPUTER SCIENCE TUTOR AT STANFORD

Andy Martin “I did a lot of CS with Bob.  He did the CS and I did most of the struggling”

Eric Vande Kieft “He was always ahead of me in CS”

Chris Sprague “He was great, not just because he knew all the answers, but because he’d help people and was so nice”

Luke Biewald “Assignments were due at midnight.  At 11:55pm our group would say alright who’s gonna ask Bob for help?  Everyone was freaking out, he was always calm and would just swivel around in his chair”

Derek Janssen “My mom would call and ask me ‘How’s CS going?’ and I always said ‘OK, at least I have Amish Bob on my side’”

Kirstin Cummings “ Even life questions, I’d always ask him”

Kennell Jackson (freshman year RF resident faculty) “I heard of his reputation”

Max “Bob’s contribution was more that ¾ of the whole engineering team at PayPal.  He’s left an impression that’s deeper than most, wider than most”

“Before playing heated ping pong matches, the Israelis vs. the Sicilians, Bob would say ‘In the end it doesn’t matter who wins because we’ll all be eating pasta.’”

“His nickname at work was Bobster.  He worked to catched Fraudsters.  He had to fight for his soul to  get him to come back and work for us, so we offered him a car (mostly jokingly ) and started campaigning ‘Bobster gets a Roadster.’”

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