Charles Robert "Bob" Eddinger's Obituary
Obituary for Charles Robert "Bob" Eddinger by Rodney N Powell
Bob Eddinger of Honolulu passed away on November 26, 2023. He was 84 years old. Bob was a Professor of Zoology. He is survived by his husband of 46 years Rodney Norman Powell; their children April Powell-Willingham, Allison Powell-Schueler, and Daniel B. Powell; 8 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren; 1 nephew and 6 nieces, and numerous grand nieces and nephews.
In 1961, after graduating from Clarion University of Pennsylvania with a BS degree in Biology, Bob went to Burma (now Myanmar) to teach at Kingswood High School, a Methodist mission school, located in Kalaw, Myanmar from 1961 - 1964. After returning to the USA in 1964, Bob pursued his MS and PhD in Zoology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa from 1965 - 1971.
Bob’s field study for his MS and PhD degrees was focused in Ornithology where he excelled in numerous new studies: a) mynah and Elepaio birds; b) feeding helpers among immature White-eyes; c) experiences with hand-raising passerine birds; d) the attainment of sexual maturity in the Hawaiian Jungle Fowl; e) the White-eye as an interspecific feeding helper; and f) a study of the breeding behavior of four species of Hawaiian Honeycreepers. [Hawaiian Birdlife, 1972 by Andrew John Berger (Author)]
In 1976 Bob was part of an outstanding group of individuals selected for their knowledge of native forest birds in Hawaii and whose experience, work ethic and willingness to work under very difficult conditions were prerequisite to conduct a survey of Kau Forest native birds. The results of the data in Kau demonstrated to the world that obtaining biologically and statistically defensible information from large area surveys of ecologically and geographically complex areas was possible. Today nearly 50 years after completing the 1976 survey of Kau it is still widely recognized as the gold standard for large area bird surveys. The data from this group of elite birders in Hawaii helped to establish the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge to protect native Hawaiian forest birds and their forest habitat. [Dr. J. Michael Scott, senior scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey and professor in the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources at the University of Idaho]
However, Bob’s main professional passion was teaching. After attaining his PhD he was appointed Professor of Zoology at University of Hawaii - Honolulu Community College (HCC) where he taught for 34 years, retiring in 2005. Bob was a dedicated teacher, able to disaggregate the complexities of scientific text, inspiring many HCC students to realize how smart they are and capable of pursuing advanced degrees in the biological sciences, especially medicine.
In 1977 on the campus of the University of Hawaii at Manoa Bob met Rodney N Powell MD, a pediatrician and public health and preventive medicine physician, who had just
joined the faculty of the John A. Burns School of Medicine as a Professor of Family Practice and Community Health. For Bob and Rod it was one of those rare occasions of ‘love at first sight’ and we instantly went forward together as life partners, navigating the inequalities of reciprocal relationships, civil unions and domestic partnerships until marriage parity was won for the LGBTQ+ Hawaii citizens. On December 3, 2013, the first day same sex marriage was legal in Hawaii we were legally married by Carolyn Martinez Golojuch, who is a fearless, inexhaustible champion of LGBTQ+ civil rights.
Bob early in life in Pennsylvania was a passionate gardener. From grade school years through college, he created a temperate deciduous forest around his family’s home, with an eclectic and extensive profusion of spring, summer and fall plants and flowers. In December 1978 we bought our home on Tantalus, a small residential community located in the Ko’olau Mountains, in a State of Hawaii Conservation District above Makiki in Honolulu. In the verdant tropical highlands of Tantalus, Bob’s other personal life passion rooted and flourished. It was my distinct pleasure and honor to work side by side with him to establish Magnolia Hale, our mountainside garden of seven terraces, connected by stairs rising 10 – 12 stories from the road to the top of the garden. In Magnolia Hale’s tropical highlands climate Bob fashioned a wonderland mixture of magnolias, north American fir trees, azaleas, camellias intermixed with towering royal palms, orchids, bromeliads, anthurium, native Hawaiian plants to name only a few in Bob’s rich palette of native, tropical and temperate zone plants.
For 46 years Bob enriched all our lives with his love, gentle spirit, and dedication as another parent to our children. Our reconfigured family of three parents has celebrated all holidays together, mostly in Hawaii, and many family reunions in our scattered home locations in Hawaii, California, and Germany.
Private Services will be held.
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