FINK, Robert "Bob"
Age 86, of Dayton, passed away May 29, 2021 from complications of cancer.
Bob graduated from Dayton's Fairview High School, class of '53. He earned Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Welding Engineering from The Ohio State University, class of '60. He served in the Army Infantry as a Second Lieutenant, first in Korea near the DMZ and then at Fort Knox.
Bob earned his Professional Engineers license and worked for many years in the automotive industry. In 1972, he became a Professor of Engineering at Sinclair Community College. In higher education, he found his professional calling and
became a favorite professor who influenced the careers of students for 24 years at Sinclair. He retired in 1996.
Throughout his life, Bob embodied loyalty and high integrity and was a mentor to many. He enjoyed gardening, cooking and traveling to historical sites, but his life's passion was
model railroading. He began to build scale model trains at age 13. During his life, he built three different model railroad layouts in HO scale, each filling his home's basement. The most recent is a replica of Dayton's glory days of rail in the 1940s. He was a member of the National Model Railroad
Association (NMRA) and active in its Division 3 and Division 7 groups of modelers. He served in various leadership roles in the NMRA and was a prolific author in trade magazines and a speaker at national conferences. Bob was willing to share his enthusiasm for the hobby with anyone interested and invited the public to tour his layouts during regional and national model railroad conventions. In 1996, he was one of the
primary builders of the model train layout that Virginia
Kettering gifted to the community at Christmastime. It has been displayed and enjoyed as a downtown Dayton holiday tradition for more than two decades. In 1990, based on his leadership service, technical skill in modeling and published works, he earned his Master Model Railroader certificate through the NMRA Achievement Program, one of a select group of modelers in the U.S. to earn this highest award.
Bob is survived by his wife of 53 years, Marcie; his daughter, Cindy Fink, and son-in-law, Kemp Jaycox; granddaughter, Kate Jaycox; and goddaughter, Robyn Clayton.
A memorial service will be held Sunday, September 5. Inquiries about the memorial service can be made via email to
BobFink6@gmail.com.
The family has endowed a scholarship at Sinclair Community College to permanently memorialize Bob's life in a way
befitting his path from first-generation college student to impactful professor. This scholarship will be given annually to students who are the first in their families to go to college and pursue an engineering degree at Sinclair. Friends and
colleagues are invited to contribute memorial donations to this scholarship in honor of Bob's life and teaching legacy and as a way to increase the number of students who can be
supported each year. Memorial gifts can be made online at Give.Sinclair.edu/BobFink.
FINK, Robert
