Robert Lee Yoder, Jr.

Robert Lee Yoder Jr (Bobby), died peacefully at his home Friday, January 13, 2024. He was 70 years old. He had spent his last evening with his wife, Margaret, watching his beloved Indiana University Hoosiers thump the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Born in La Plata, Puerto Rico, Bobby spent his youth in Bloomington, Indiana where his father was in graduate school. Those were fond memories for Bobby as he and his siblings would recall paper routes, biking, spelunking in caves and skateboarding. In 1968 the family relocated to Goshen that became, except for an eleven-year stint in Colorado, his true home. While he missed Bloomington, the move did give Bobby the opportunity to spend more time on his grandparents’ (Rudy and Mae Yoder) farm in Milford, where he became highly skilled at plowing, planting, harvesting and all of the necessary chores of a working farm.

At the age of 18 he and his closest friend from high school rode their motorcycles all the way to Costa Rica. They wanted to visit a girl who was living there while her parents hosted Study Service Trimester students from Goshen College. After enjoying this tropical paradise and the company of their friend’s family along with Costa Rican families who provided hospitality, Bobby headed back north, stopping in Honduras. His mother Dorothy had a relative residing there who arranged Bobby’s transport with his motorcycle, of course, on a banana boat headed for Gulfport, Mississippi. It was January then and he was able to get as far as Tupelo, Mississippi before the cold forced him call his father Bob Sr to ask for a ride home. Much later in his life, Bobby’s motorcycle traveled with him to Colorado and then also came back to Indiana when he and Margaret returned to his home state.

A soccer player in his younger years, with great memories and stories from Goshen’s Watertower FC soccer team, Bobby became a lifelong fan of sports, especially all things IU but also of Liverpool FC of English Premier League Soccer. Liverpool’s success in recent weeks, to gain the coveted first place position in their season standings, was a source of joy.

In work Bobby was meticulous at getting things right – measure twice, cut once – which led to a long and successful career at DJ Construction. He was Construction Site Superintendent for a number of local church projects, the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary Library project in Elkhart as well as, most notably, the Interra Federal Credit Union building in downtown Goshen.

Bobby married late in life, but it was worth the wait. In 2007 he wed Dr. Margaret Loewen, a friend from college days, who brought two sons into the marriage. In addition to his wife, Bobby leaves behind his parents Robert and Dorothy Yoder of Goshen, stepsons Christopher Payne of Alamosa, Colorado and Loewen Payne (Meg) of Valparaiso and their three wonderfully rambunctious daughters Fiona, Jillian and Quinn. Additional survivors include his brother Ronald (Rhonda) Yoder of Nacogdoches, Texas, his sister Judith (Richard) Stern of Arlington, Virginia, and his brother Ted Yoder of Washington DC. His nephews and niece adored Bobby: Max Stern, Mexico City; Cora Stern, Washington DC; Nathaniel Stern, London, England; and Jackson Yoder, Washington DC.

A service for sharing of memories, pictures, stories and fellowship is planned at College Mennonite Church on Wednesday, January 24, 2024 in the Koinonia Room at 2 p.m. All who attend are requested to wear masks.

A later celebration of life will be held in the summer of 2024. Please notify the family of Bobby if you would like to have an invitation to this outdoor event.

In the coming days, weeks and months, let us remember an African proverb: “Say not in grief ‘he is no more’, but live in thankfulness that he was.”