Eulogy for Bob Biko by Horace Wulff
Bob Biko passed away on Wednesday, November 28th. On Saturday November 24th he played tennis with his usual group. On Monday the 26th he was here at the Rotary meeting & Tuesday he was complaining to the Rotary office that his membership team did not get all their points from the Monday meeting. If they had these points, his team would be ahead of Thom Gilbert’s team. On Wednesday Bob went to his gym, like he usually does 5 days per week. Tragically this is where he passed away.
Our friend Bob had been a member of the Rotary Club of Sacramento for 34 years. The “Classic Bob” picture shown on the presentation today was his first and only Rotary picture. Many of our club presidents asked Bob to get a new picture, but he liked this one and had no intention of getting another. Maybe the reason was he wanted to appear young indefinitely.
There are things we do at each meeting which will remind me of Bob. He started the tradition of serving wine before our meetings. For the first few years he actually supplied all the wine himself. Another thing is the dessert table. When we were meeting at the convention center, they wanted to raise the lunch price. Bob suggested they could save money by putting a few desserts out at a separate table, rather than serving everyone as they had been doing.
Some of the Rotary activities I worked on with Bob include 8 wine dinners, coordinating the food and wine for most of the Bids For Kids and last year’s Mystery Trip to the UC Davis Mondavi Food & Wine Center. Bob did a lot of things for Rotary and he really enjoyed being a member.
Bob was born in Cleveland, Ohio 68 years ago. His family moved to Sacramento when his father took an engineering job at Aerojet. Bob graduated from El Camino High School and was working for Jumbo Markets when he fell in love with one of his customers. Linda was a school teacher who had just moved here from Washington state. They married and have a daughter, Brooke, who was the apple of Bob’s eye.
Even though Bob became the manager of one of Jumbo Market’s stores, he left to be a partner in a wine shop they called World of Wine. They located the shop on Munrow Ave., near where the Lemon Grass Restaurant is now. The wine shop did not work out too well, as the concept was a little ahead of its time. Next he went to work with Babe and Al Lovotti at Lovotti Bros. Wine Company. Bob really enjoyed selling wine. One particular period he often talked about was when the Lovotti’s became partners in Belvern Winery in Healdsburg. Bob was the national sales manager. Not only did he have Belvern Chardonnay on the wine list of every white table cloth restaurant in Sacramento, he travelled all over the country, including NY City where he was able to get some of the best restaurants in the country to have Belvern wine on their wine list.
Bob’s job, when he passed away, was with fellow Rotarian Larry Cassidy at Northern California Collection Services.
Bob was a great guy and a very good and generous friend. He will be missed by all. Our sympathy goes out to Linda and Brooke. The family wants to let you know there will be a memorial service after the holidays.