Robert Jacob Eckstein

October 23, 1935 – January 7, 2021 

It’s with heavy hearts and deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Robert Jacob Eckstein on January 7^th at St. Boniface Hospital at the age of 85.

Robert leaves to mourn his wife Joyce, of 58 years; their daughters Kelli (Real) Dacquay, Karen (Richard) Cadez; grandchildren Jonathan, Ryan, Michelle (Marc), Joshua and David; sister Bernice McColl, his twin brother from Calgary, Don and many nephews.

Robert was born in Winnipeg and grew up in Elmwood. He often shared stories about his many adventures with his friends Walter, Gary and Dave. From hiking and camping out at the Whiteshell, jumping on a moving train and heading to Calgary, sneaking into a racetrack and running across the track while the cars were coming, to running and jumping over fences to escape fights after a night at the bar.

Even at a very young age Robert managed to get into trouble. One evening when Robert was four years old his parents were attending a wedding party at a friend’s house just down the street. On their way home they noticed two little boys in their pajamas walking down the sidewalk. They thought to themselves, who on earth would let their children out alone at this time of the night. As they got closer, they realized it was their kids, Robert and Don. Apparently, Robert woke up to find no one home so he decided to wake up his brother Don and head out into the night looking for them.

Robert moved from school to school as I understand because he was a handful. He told a story about a teacher who was scolding him. At that time, they would slap the back of your hand with a ruler. As he was getting slapped, he started to laugh, the teacher continued to hit his hand harder only to have him laugh more; the teacher finally just gave up.

When Robert’s older brother Alvin joined the Navy, Robert attempted to follow in his footsteps by joining the army. He quickly realized he wasn’t good at taking orders, so his army career was very shot lived.

Robert was a member of the Boiler Makers as a wielder for 40 years, local 555 and was very good at his trade. These jobs took him all over Canada. One of those jobs was working on a ship in the Bering Sea.  But he always missed home and looked forward to when the job was over so he could come back.

Robert was a jokester and enjoyed laughing, he never took life to seriously. He was the type of person who would give you the shirt off his back. If anyone ever needed help, he would be the first to offer with whatever they needed.

Robert enjoyed hunting and fishing. He enjoyed spending time with his grandchildren whether it was driving Michelle and Josh back and forth to elementary school or shooting targets and riding the quad with Jonathan, Ryan and David.

Besides Joyce, Robert had two other loves of his life. The first time they went to Barbados with his brother and sister Robert fell in love with the island. Everything in his home became about Barbados, whether it was with photos or painting his back yard cabana with the colors of Barbados. Robert and Joyce were able to enjoy visiting Barbados a couple more times together.

The other love of his life were his cats, Maggie, Misty and Maxxii. He may have talked more about them then Barbados. He loved all animals and we also had a pet growing up. Maggie of course was his favorite and the two looked after each other as they both got older.

Gods garden must be beautiful

He always takes the best

He knew you were suffering

He knew you were in pain

He knew that you would never

Get well on Earth again

He put his arms around you and

Lifted you to rest.