Roll Call Tribute

Robert Wayne Skupin

July 15, 1937 - February 18, 2023

Robert Wayne Skupin, age 85, of Gainesville, Texas passed away on Saturday, February 18, 2023.

Robert Wayne Skupin was born July 15, 1937 to Emil Skupin and Hattie Engbrock Skupin in Rosebud, Texas. He liked to tell people he attended a small one-room school in Briary, Texas*, the first four years of his education, riding a horse to school. He then continued his education in Cameron and Rosebud.

Robert received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 1959 while serving in the A&M Corps of Cadets as Executive Officer of Squadron 3 his senior year. While a student, Robert was a member of ASME, ASE and the Falls County Home Town Club. He went on to serve three years in the USAF, two of which were in Okinawa as maintenance officer for aircraft ground support equipment. He then went to work for US Gypsum in Sweetwater, Texas where he met and married his wife of 59 years, Janis Smith Skupin.

Serving at many locations in different capacities with USG, he worked the last 13 years as a director of engineering at corporate headquarters in Chicago, Illinois. He returned to Texas when he retired in 1998 and settled in Gainesville where he was an avid golfer at Lake Kiowa.

Robert passed away peacefully in his sleep February 18th, 2023 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease

Robert is survived by his wife Janis, son Steven, daughter Stephanie Stout and her husband Mike, and two grandchildren Kaitlyn Stout Lopez Garcia and husband Iván, and Andrew, two younger brothers, Henry and Da- vid and their wives Anne and Sharon, and many cousins, nieces and nephews.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.neptunesociety.com/location/fort-worth-cremation for the Skupin family.

*Briary, Texas is a ghost town in Milam County, Texas, near Rosebud. It was named for Big Briary Creek, which was nearby. The town had several businesses, churches, and a schoolhouse (which can still be seen today) in the 1940s, but was dropped from maps by the next decade.