Robert “Bob” Augustus Ames

AUGUSTA – Robert “Bob” Augustus Ames, passed away on Wednesday morning July 20, 2022 at the Togus V.A. Hospital after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Bob was born in Canaan on July 29, 1934 as the seventh of 13 children of Aratus F. Ames and Louise B. Sincyr.

As a boy, Bob worked on the family farm and couldn’t wait until he turned 18 to move on. He joined the Navy in 1952 where he learned to repair aircraft and was deployed on several different aircraft carriers taking him on voyages around the world.

While in the Navy, Bob married his girl from back home, Theresa Lessor, in 1954, and started a family of his own. He retired from the military in 1973 after more than 20 years of service and settled down in the town he grew up in. Bob took on a series of jobs through the years including driving a milk truck, construction, carpentry, driving heavy equipment and scores of other hands-on work sometimes for his brother, Stanley’s business, or his other brother, Linwood. There didn’t seem to be any equipment he couldn’t operate or construction job that he couldn’t build.

After a stretch of work at International Paper Company in Jay, Bob retired in 1996 to head out on the road to Alaska with Theresa. His thirst for travel kept him on the road in an RV for many years going from coast to coast and often traveling with or meeting up with several of his siblings including Stanley, Joe and Polly. He and Theresa would often spend winters down south and work their way back home in the spring. Later, after Theresa’s passing in 2002 he continued traveling with his life companion, Betty Gilbert, including another trip to Alaska which he truly loved to visit.

Bob was as friendly and helpful as any person you could ever meet, always willing to lend a hand or put a smile on your face with his quick witted sense of humor and he is dearly missed.

He is survived by his five children and their spouses, Ken and his wife Margaret, John and his wife Lisa, Jerome and his wife Wanda, Brent and his wife Donna, Terri and her husband Steve Mudie; as well as 15 grandchildren, Kendall, Geoffrey, Matt, Megan, Shyla, Johnathan, Joshua, Shaun, Tyler, Jeremiah, Douglas, Andrew, Nathaniel, MaryAnne and Amelia; and 24 great-grandchildren.

Bob was predeceased by his wife Theresa; his parents Aratus and Louise, his wife’s parents John and Mary Lessor; siblings and their spouses Violet and Norman “Bud” Miller, Linwood and Rita Ames, Virginia “Ginger” and Lawrence “Laurie” Gustafson, Hazel and Gustaf “Gusty” Gustafson, Aratus “Joe” and Doris “Dot” Ames, Richard “Dickey” and Linda Ames, sisters Darlene Corson and Mary Ames, sister-in-law, Patricia “Pat” Ames, brothers-in-law Bernard Willey and Harry Jewell.

A graveside service will be held Saturday, August 27 at 3 p.m. at Fairview Cemetery in Canaan. Arrangements are under the care and direction of Smart and Edwards Funeral Home, http://www.SmartandEdwardsFH.com