Robert Freeman: doctor, inventor, habitual punster

Medal-winning fighter pilot. Distinguished family physician. Inventor, technophile, businessman. Eager community leader and education booster.

Dr. Robert Mark Freeman, a lifelong Tacoma resident, died Nov. 5 at age 86 after years of debilitating illness. Family members said they can't think of a single project left for the beloved father, doctor and consummate punster to accomplish.

"He was very bright, a healer, very dedicated to helping those around him," his daughter, Janet Freeman-Daily of Federal Way, said. "He was always curious, always learning about the world around him."

Born in 1914 in California, Freeman was very young when his family moved to Pierce County. He grew up helping his father manufacture the Wood Freeman marine autopilot system that his father had invented. It was the beginning of a fascination with technology and innovation that led Dr. Freeman to invent and patent several of his own autopilot systems and navigation devices.

Dr. Freeman dropped out of the University of Washington and joined the Navy during World War II, learning to fly and helping to develop the "Night Fighters," an elite squadron of pilots who flew from darkened aircraft carriers, guided mostly by primitive radar. As the commanding officer, Dr. Freeman battled the Japanese air forces in the South Pacific.

He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross. But he never told his children about it. They found the medal after he died.

"He never bragged about things," Freeman-Daily said. "He was very modest. And he'd lost a lot of friends (in the war)."

After the war, Dr. Freeman earned his medical degree at the University of Washington while raising his two sons, Robert Jr. and Michael, with his wife, Ethel, who also survives him. He graduated with honors and was class president all four years.

He ran a family practice in University Place, Pierce County, for 13 years as his own family grew to include two daughters. His patients called him "Dr. Bob."

"He was a very compassionate individual," daughter Karen Freeman Worstell of Gig Harbor said. But he also had a playful sense of humor, unleashing strings of puns until his wife rolled her eyes and his daughters groaned.

Dr. Freeman left his medical practice to take over the family autopilot business when his father died in 1966. He found himself drawn by the engineering and inventing background of his youth, his children said. He later invented a new autopilot system, the Wood Freeman Model 500 series.

"He was driven," Worstell said. "He felt very obligated to continue (the business) and carry that on." His son, Michael, took over the business, now called MMP, after Freeman retired in 1998, at 83.

Through it all, Freeman still flew his own plane, sailed the San Juans, headed the building committee for his Lutheran church's new sanctuary, supported the science department at Curtis High School in Tacoma, and kept up with the latest developments in medicine and computer technology.

To the end, he urged his children and his grandchildren to follow science as a way to improve the world.

"I think he was a person who never saw any obstacles," Worstell said. "He just loved life and he cherished it and he made the most of it. His expectation was that you were given the gift of certain talents, and you have an obligation to use them."

In addition to his wife and four children, Freeman is survived by his sister, Eleanor Jessel Conti of Gig Harbor, 10 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.

A service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 24, at the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church in Gig Harbor.

Remembrances may be sent to the University of Washington Tacoma's Institute of Technology, 1900 Commerce St., Tacoma, 98402, or the UW's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, c/o VA Puget Sound Health Care System (S-116),1660 S. Columbian Way, Seattle, 98108.

Ian Ith can be reached at 206-464-2109 or iith@seattletimes.com.