Robert Eugene (Bob) Haas

1947-2024 – Please join us for a Celebration of Life Concert by the Big Horn Brass on Sunday, March 23, 2025 at 3:00 pm, at the Rise Church in Tigard. A reception with time to remember Bob will follow the concert in the Fellowship Hall.

Bob was born in Omaha, Nebraska to Robert L. Haas and Irene Segerstrom Haas. A precocious child, he was given his first soldering iron for his 5th birthday. By 10 he earned his first Ham License. In Junior High he found a magazine article on the Tektronix 321 portable scope which included the schematics. He studied the design and got a version of the sweep circuit to work. His first exposure to computers came just prior to his sophomore year at Central High School. He was selected to an NSF Summer Science program one of few that accepted sophomores. The program held at the University of Oklahoma taught computer programming and nuclear physics.

Bob was accepted to California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California. It was at a CalTech/Scripps College Mixer mid-way through their freshman year that Bob met Merrily Smith who he would marry in 1971. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1969.

Returning to the University of Nebraska Medical School where he had worked during his college summers, Bob spent his free time learning how to fly and achieved his first solo flight. He also spent those two years getting up the courage to ask Merrily to marry him. Even if he had to give up his job and move to Oregon, he felt it was worth it not to have to shovel snow every winter. However, he did give up flying as Oregon had mountains.

Bob and Merrily were married, September 1971, in Eugene, Oregon. His first Oregon job was at U.S. Plywood, which became Champion International. Using a mainframe computer with large tape drives and punch cards he helped track the board feet of plywood being loaded into railcars throughout Oregon. Bob had stopped renewing his FCC license when he was in college, but he decided to renew it in 1975 to communicate more easily with his Dad. An upgrade brought him to the Advanced level as W7LQS which he kept until it his death.

His first daughter, Marjene, was born in Eugene in 1976, but they soon moved to Tualatin as Bob had finally landed his dream job of working for Tektronix at the new Computer Graphics Campus in Wilsonville. He worked on several projects including: Tektronix 4052, 4041, TMC 510 and Unicorn. Bob was responsible for evaluating and selecting the display monitor for the Unicorn project. He finally chose Panasonic, which began a 17 year partnership between Tektronix and Panasonic/Matsushita. Bob called himself the “6 million dollar man” because the annual volume was 10,000 at $600 per monitor.

Their second daughter Robin was born in 1980, right after Mount Saint Helens erupted. The Panasonic/Tektronix partnership was not going well. So Bob took a class in Japanese to improve communications. He was also part of a small Tektronix team who went to Japan in the summer of 1982 as the guests of Panasonic for 10 days. This was his first and only international trip.

His interest in the City of Tualatin’s noise ordinance due to an industrial building proposed a few hundred feet from his home led him to the City Council. He served on the Tualatin City Council two different terms from January 1983 –December 1986. Then again from January 1989 to December 1992.

By 1984 Bob set up his own computer based consulting business. Among his clients C-COR Labs, Tektronix, and Merchaid. When consulting jobs dried up in 1985, he paused his business and went to work for a start-up called Microfield Graphics where he was considered the resident PC hardware/software compatibility expert.

In 1987 he returned to his business as a consultant. This time his clients were: In Focus Systems, Tektronix, Merchaid, PADS Software, OrCAD, ETEC, nCube, Intel, Lattice and Logic Modeling (now Synopsys). One of his consulting jobs got him listed as co-inventor of a patent, 5,101,197 “Electronic Transparency method and apparatus” for his work with InFocus Systems.

In 1994 he moved to OrCAD (now part of Cadence) doing computer aided design software and testing. By 1999 he moved on again, this time to Maxim Integrated Products. They had two campuses, one in Hillsboro and the other in Beaverton. He worked in Hillsboro for a few years, but finally told them they needed to find him a project he could work on at the Beaverton location because he was tired of the commute. Bob retired from Maxim in December 2013 and shortly after Maxim was acquired by Analog Devices.

Although he was an amateur musician playing oboe and occasionally bassoon in community orchestras for several years, he decided he most enjoyed recording the music rather than playing it. He especially enjoyed finding the best placement of microphones (some he made himself) to get the best blend of sounds. He felt that his recordings would live on well beyond his life. Indeed they do with his youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@robeughaas Some recordings from his favorite groups (Oregon Symphonic Band, Portland Wind Symphony, Oregon Sinfonietta and Big Horn Brass) are located there. He recorded other things like the swifts that roosted in his chimney each year and the hummingbirds that frequented his heated feeders.

In his retirement Bob got very involved with the VintageTek Museum. He helped in inventorying and repairing various Tek instruments and recorded several videos for the Museum’s webpage. He also played a major role in moving the Museum to the Tektronix Campus when their previous lease was up. Over the years he served as Board Chair, Board President, equipment repairer, tour guide, product demonstrator, ebay store manager and product shipper.

In September 2021, Bob and Merrily celebrated 50 years of marriage with friends and family at a small party. They then left with 5 of their cousins for a one week tour of Oregon.

The brain cancer diagnosis came suddenly and unexpectedly in June 2024. When scans showed there was no chance of a cure he entered Hospice at home. About 6 weeks later on August 21, 2024, he passed peacefully while sleeping.

Bob leaves behind his wife Merrily; daughters Marjene (and son-in-law Doug) Freiley and Robin Haas; grandchildren Jess Freiley, Alex Freiley, and Brooklyn Haas, all of Tualatin; and his brother Dave Haas of Omaha, Nebraska.

Memorial gifts may go to VintageTek Museum, Big Horn Brass or a charity of your choice.