Robert Lee Dates

Robert Lee Dates was born March 5, 1922 to Leah Bostwick Dates and her husband Ernest Dates in Corning, New York. His family lived in a fairly comfortable house in Corning for his early years. He enjoyed school and playing with twin brother Harold and siblings Hubert and Mary Ellen.

 Life became more challenging for the family around 1932 due to the Depression. Bob’s family moved to a small place at a Fish and Game Club where the boys helped set up traps to shoot clay pigeons, carried wood to heat the one room schoolhouse and basically roamed the fields. By his early teens Bob’s family was living in East Corning in a sharecropper’s shack with no running water. He worked with his brothers in the tobacco fields to help pay the rent.

 Despite his father’s hopes that the boys would become farmers (Ernest was a sheet metal worker who also did handyman work) none complied. By 1939, Bob had graduated from high school and soon was able to get a job as a lab technician in the Corning Glass Works where he earned $40 weekly. In 1941, he was in a pre-dental course at Ohio State University in Columbus. Bob received financial help from relatives and worked many odd jobs to afford school. Later, he kept hustling to pay for dental school at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio, but it was tight. He was able to qualify for a small amount of government money in his first year which resulted in him serving a month in Army training at the end of WWII, then being placed in the reserves.

 Bob met his wife Bernice when she was his patient while he was working in the dental clinic at Case Western. By 1947 they had married and moved to Corning where he began his dental practice. After Diane and Lynn were born ,the Army called him back in 1952 to serve as a dentist for two years in the Korean War. Chrissy was born while he was still serving so he met her when she was a toddler.

 Daughters Luella and Barb were born after an eight year break from babies. Bob had many happy family times at home and at the cottage at Keuka Lake. Boating, fishing and maintaining the property were his hobbies with the family for years. After his home and dental office were flooded in 1972’s Hurricane Agnes he and Bernice rolled up their sleeves and cleaned up the flood mud . Bernice, an RN, became his office mate . The two were a great team at the office and at home. They were always busy cleaning, doing yard work, painting, you name it. They had the three places: house, office and cottage.

 Bob loved Corning and so volunteered in positions over the years from serving on session at First Presbyterian Church to being president of Steuben County Dental Society. The years flew by. Then came retirement in 1986 after 40 years of very competent, gentle care to his many dental patients.

 Bob and Bernice moved to Albany, NY in 2008 when he needed cornea transplants and Bernice was beginning to feel the effects in what would be diagnosed as MDS, a blood cancer which she gracefully endured for about 6 more years. After his beloved wife’s death, Bob sorely missed his number one helpmate, but put energy into learning how to cook, clean and carry on in their home for another ten years alone. The “kids” ( his children in their sixties and seventies) helped Bob, but he was fiercely independent and remarkably strong from a life of hard work. Thus, he could dig holes to plant shrubs in his eighties, mow lawns and snow blow in his nineties and still do his own cooking and laundry in his 100s. By 102, he was on the computer less, but aware of current events and fluent concerning the Mets, the Knicks and sometimes the Bills.

 Absolutely anyone who met Bob the last few years of his life was in awe of his physical strength and cognitive acuity. “What was your secret?” they would ask. His answer: “ I expect adversity and then carry on.” He suffered several kinds of cancer, mostly skin in nature, but over all was extremely healthy . Still he had a hip replacement at 96 and almost bled to death from an intestinal issue in his 90s. At 98, Bob fell and lay on the floor for 18 hours and was given months to live due to swallowing issues, but he said he had another agenda. It took four years of living independently before he succumbed to pneumonia from aspiration of food.

 Bob was a quiet man who liked hard work and the satisfaction it brought. His family all took pride in his remarkable resilience. Bob was really something. We cannot believe he was mortal.

 Bob is survived by his children which include his daughter Diane (James) Casey of New Albany, Ohio; son Lynn(Siew Suan) Dates of Taiping, Perak, Malaysia and daughters Christine(David) van Alstyne of Guilderland, New York; Luella (John) Bressler of Odenton, Maryland and Barbara (James) Talbot of Loudonville, New York. Bob has many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Several nieces and nephews and survive as well. He was predeceased by his brothers Hubert and Harold and sister Mary Ellen. Bob’s family is grateful for those who have supported Bob throughout the years. We are indebted to his caregivers Amanda Morehouse, Debbie Walker and Krissy Kownack, Hospice staff and to Bob’s dedicated doctors Dr. Robert Taranto, Dr. Jerome Hill and Dr. Stefan Swicker.

 A funeral service will be held on Saturday, November 23 at 4 pm. It will be at Bethany Reformed Church 760 New Scotland Avenue, Albany, NY.

 If you wish to remember Bob in a special way donations may be made to First Presbyterian Church, 1 East First Street, Corning, NY 14830 or Heifer International, 1 World Avenue, Little Rock, AR 72202.