Robert J. Cantrell

1921 - 2014

Robert Joseph Cantrell

January 27th. 1921 - August. 18, 2014

...Beloved First Day Founder,

Dad, Husband, Friend & Mentor, Activist-Change Agent, Sailor, Architect...Dreamer+Doer.

Robert Joseph Cantrell, 'Bob,' died peacefully within the Citadel elder-care community, Mesa,

Arizona on August 18th at the age of 93. Bob was born in Gainesville, Texas on January 27th.1921

to David Murry and Mary Pearl (Higgins) Cantrell.

Bob's life had two wonderfully fulfilling chapters, the first creating a loving family with Jessie

(Sivyer) Cantrell his wife of 44 years, raising three daughters-Helen, Janet, and Clair in suburban

Chicago and Baltimore areas. As an architect, Cantrell's projects of note included McCormick Place

Convention Center, and later, facilities of Johns Hopkins Homewood campus.

Bob's youthful experiences of overcoming personal physical challenges and the economic and

social realities of the Great Depression would ignite in him a passion and bias for action in service

to the needs of his fellow compatriots.

After the death of Jessie in 1989 Cantrell took to the solitude of his sailboat 'Invicta' -cruising along

the Intercoastal Waterway, the Bahamas and the Florida Keys. Later a Providential reunion would

reunite Cantrell to Mavis (Farrington) Davenport, an acquaintance of earlier times. (Both had

outlived spouses). 'That wonderful lady,' would cause [Cantrell] to 'untie-the-lines.' Forfeiting the

sea, for land and love, Bob relocated to suburban Los Angeles--joining Mavis at her canyon home in

Whittier, California.

This second fruitful chapter of loving companionship together, yielded civic engagement, advocacy

and pro-bono creative support to the communities of East Los Angeles [via Eastmont Community

Center], Whittier [via Whittier's First Day], and La Puente [via Universal Preschool at Delhaven].

Mavis and Bob enjoyed an 15-year marriage together concluding with Mavis' passing in 2010.

West Coast 'Celebration-of Life' Gathering: Saturday, October 25th. 2014, at Whittier First Christian

Church, 6355 South Greenleaf Avenue, Uptown-Whittier, CA. 90601.