As I remember Bob today, I think of what he was not: arrogant, boastful, overbearing. He manged to get the best out of those who worked for him without demeaning them or resorting to threats. Just a great guy...
My dad and I had a funny way of saying hello when I was a young girl. He would stand in the kitchen, and when I saw him I would run toward him, head down, at full speed! He always wanted to prove that he had abs of steel and would hold them tight as I barreled toward him. The top of my head would make contact with that belly and I would bounce right off! This went on for quite some time until he was sidelined with an umbilical hernia, apparantly caused by some blunt trauma to the abdomen.........oops!
The past several months, Bob really had a hard time communicating. You could tell he had something he wanted to say but his brain and his speech difficulties prohibited him from doing so. While in the hospital, he actually seemed to improve after being on an IV and getting hydrated so the family enjoyed seeing him being more like his old self. This was evident when the speech therapist came to do a swallow test and asked him to say "one, two, three". He just looked at her so Aggie said "Bob, say one, two, three" to which Bob responded very clearly - "What the hell for?". Another time a nurse was pulling the tape off his arm from the IV and when she ripped it off Bob said in a loud voice as clear as day, "You son of a bi#$@"! We were so happy to be able to hear and understand him, even if it was him cursing at the hospital staff!
Another Bob Hansen at Motorola Radar story...
I was on a ...ahem...well deserved vacation, took a "sick, lame & lazy" (a Hansenism) day, something or other caused me to be out of the office one day. Now, this was in the days just before everyone had a computer in their own office. We had a room with 6 of them in it that everyone shared...what a load of fun that was!. Anywho, I was away...and my locked desk had notebooks, and handwritten things all around, in drawers, cabinets, etc.
Well, when i returned the next day, I unlocked up my middle desk drawer and found a Bob Hansen business card. OK...no big deal...I took out my note pad , and 2 Hansen business cards fell out,. Opened up a file....yeah, another business card....turned the page on the daily calendar....yep, Bob Hansen's card ! Pretty much everything in my office had a Bob Hansen business card stuck in it...falling out of it...taped under a chair...you name the place, Hansen had placed a business card there..
You need to know that ,in those days at Motorola, our division seemed to change names yearly(GD, GED, GSTG, GEG...miss any?)...plus ,our job titles seemed to change a bunch and,so, when you ordered a box of business cards...well, they were not current for very long. Therefore, all of us had a box or three of "old" business cards. So, Hansen got me good ...& it was pretty funny & needed to be repeated. A number of "the usual suspects" went around the office and did this to each other a few times. "How ya fixed for business internet days.
Now,some of "the guys"; would head up to the Hansen's place in Pine, Az... in early-to-mid October . Agnes woud head down to the Valley (always a smart lady)...and the guys would be there for a weekend of football on TV, beer, great food (most of which caused varying degrees of gas) ,beer, scratching, guy stuff,beer...well, you get the picture. Let's just say, by the time we left & Agnes returned, they had no insect problems in that house whatsoever!
Now, one thing they would have after we departed for the Valley....were "a few" business cards...pretty much anywhere & everywhere in that house. Funny thing is, I initially thought I was the only one putting cards everywhwere...but noooo... others were doing it ,too! You sneaky guys, you! You'd look in a coffee cup & see Bob Poplawski's card...or in a shirt pocket in the closet...a Harrison Lee...maybe an Al Olsen card in the fridge....I even gathered some cards from others such as Lorraine Chavez,Bill Barrus, the late Bud Phillips, Bob McClara, Frank Fall, Gary Thomas, Dave Pagath,and Gary Miller...to name but a few.... ..Hey, Hansen, how ya fixed for business cards? Bob would open his eyes real wide & say...(years later)" I'm still finding those damned business cards ...No more business cards!
We put so many business cards up there over the years that we enjoyed the Hansen's hospitality...and, uh..beer...that one time when the lads went up to Pine, that creative Agnes had posted a whole wall in the potty...full of business cards she ,Boib, and the kids had found.,,,wonder how they all got there? (Ya see, DENIAL also played a big part in some of these little adventures, too!)
So, Agnes, Lars, Larissa, & Jill...I know how Bob would answer this question & he'd be disappointed if I didn't ask...so, i will: How ya fixed for business cards ?
Working many years at Motorola both for and with Bob...there are, as you'd imagine, a large number of stories...some of which are even suitable for mixed company! Let's hope this is one of them...
Durng those Motorola daze down at Price & Elliot, the Material managers (such as we were) were co-located with the Purchasing Department. All the department managers were lined up on one wall...or "Murderer's Row" as some called it. Bob Hansen was in one of those offices...right next to Purchasing Manager Gary (Lash LaRue from Laveen...uh...whole 'nuther stiory , here) . There was this very large program for the US Army being devweloped inb our faciliy at the time...Now, you have to understand, Bob managed his folks in a loose manner...I mean ,we knew what had to be done, Bob made sure we did, & then we did it . Bob understood that dealing with the programs, the constant "Where are my parts?" demands, trying to keep QA, Program Management, Operatons, et al... stocked with materials and stay within the always tightening budget & schedule constraints resulted in a very stressful environment.Nothing ever seemed good enough for those prgorams. Bob allowed us to "let off some steam" in the office area...and, sometimes , it was a very crazy place. Hansen was right in the middle of most of it...a ringleader on a lot of it. I, was...ahem.. jusr an innopcent interpreter of what went on in that area...and i report this to you now.
The loose atmosphere often was mistaken by Purchasing personnel as "unprofessional and uncalled for"...stuffed shirts that they were, even of they were right some of the time. Therefore, when Bob Hansen was awarded a performance award (in the form of a plaque) by the SOTAS program office and Army, the aforementioned Gary Thomas simply could not believe it. I'm sure Gary thought he & his team should be the recipients of an award for having 1/2 of the material they ordered show up on time.or something...but, no, Hansen recevied the award.
Now, as i said, Bob and Gary sat immediately next to each other...and you could talk over the walls.. Occasionally, Gary would allow his frustrations to boil over a bit...and mention it was a miscarriage of justice for Hansen to have that SOTAS award.... Bob would get up from his chair, go next door, with that plaque behind his back...then show Gary the plaque...& he would say, "Wouldja like to hold my plaque?" This went on for quite some time...
OK....and,now, from this time in the early '80's, let's fast forward to 2010. I was sitting with my girlfriend in an El Pollo Loco in Tempe one evening. I told her there was a guy sitting a few tables over that reminded me of someone i used to work with....Nah, couldn't be....then again... the group the guy was with started to leave...I blurted out "GARY THOMAS"! The guy stopped and slowly turned toward me...with a look of stark raving terror on his face...or, well, maybe that's a look Gary has always had. It was the infamous Lash LaRue himself...He came over, apologized to my girlfriend for her ever having anything to do with me...we chatted for several minutes...and, as he was leaving, I said to Gary, "I just talked to Hansen....he wants to know if you'd like to hold his plaque." Y'know...Gary is STILL upset about that!
There are (almost) a million Bob Hansen -Motorola stories...most are too weird not to be true....and I, for one, am plesed as well as honored to have known the man & was able to participate and appreciate his brand of humor. I miss ya, Li'l Bobby Hansen...down the hall he goes a prancin...uh...think I'll leave the rest of the phrase out.
B.Poplawski
