Robert Kawka—born November 13, 1942 Bob’s early life was spent traveling around the U.S. and Canada with his mother and father. Dad was a professional wrestler and a veteran. Later on his parents ran a diner and a hardwood logging company.Robert entered the Boy Scout program at an early age and was enthusiastic about learning all of the merit badge skills and ultimately earned his Eagle Scout award. During this time, he began volunteering for the American Red Cross and was still doing so for some years after retirement. Sometime in the second decade of the 21st century, he was awarded a 50-Year pin.In high school, Bob was active in the Latin club, the biology club, the photography club, and the American Rocket Society. He tried most of the sports, liked tennis the best, and ended up with a letter in it. Also, the family lived where scuba diving was popular especially with the youth. Bob eventually became a scuba and underwater photography instructor.While in Community College, Bob wrote a humanities outline for the department and was a chemistry lab assistant. He also worked as a NASCAR darkroom technician and photographer at Daytona International Speedway during race weeks.While attending the two major Florida universities, Bob enjoyed spelunking, learning to fly, and was employed as a photographer and darkroom technician for the campus audio visual department.Upon graduation from Florida State University, Robert worked as a speech therapist and special education teacher in Florida and California for 35 years. Upon retirement from public school classrooms, he became an adjunct instructor in special education teacher training at two local universities and also supervised student teacher interns in their final training for the classroom.Bob’s current interests are writing, photography, air gunning, and custom pen making. He still loves exploring new recipes and different cooking techniques. Robert Kawka met Elaine Hopewell in a teacher bowling league in 1967 and were married a year later. They have one son, who has inherited some of his father’s interests and talents. Elaine has been the support for her two men. The concern in 1968 was whether or not Elaine could keep up with her new husband. Now at 67 years together, Bob has learned to slow down once in a while and allow Elaine to catch up.