- Date Of Birth: September 22, 1927
- Date Of Death: July 26, 2014
- State: Florida
Lieutenant Colonel Robert Hamelin Gaines, Jr., USAF (retired), departed this world to be with our Lord and Savior on July 26, 2014. Bob was born in Mobile, Alabama, on September 22, 1927. He was happily married to the late Mary Y. Gaines for almost 56 years. They had four children, Gaye Gaines Miller and her husband, Mike, of Pensacola, Florida, Robin Gaines Lambert of Pensacola, Florida, Robert H. Gaines, III, of Plano, Texas and Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth A. Gaines, USAF (retired), and his wife, Donna, of Lithia, Florida. He is also survived by his sister, Eleanor Wells and her husband, Ted, of Temple Terrace, Florida, and three grandchildren: Angela Fleming of Pensacola, Florida, and Taylor and Austin Gaines of Lithia, Florida. Upon graduation from Pensacola High School in 1945, he played football at Vanderbilt University and the University of Miami (FL), culminating his college football career in the 1951 Orange Bowl. During the two-year period between Vanderbilt and Miami, Bob served in the U.S. Army as a member of the occupation force in Korea. Upon his return to the United States and his graduation from Miami, he continued to serve our nation as a command pilot in the United States Air Force, seeing action in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
