Bob Longwell

Chester Robert "Bob" Longwell, 87, of Cape Girardeau passed away Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, at Missouri Veterans Home.

He was born Feb. 1, 1936, in Morgantown, West Virginia, the son of John H. and Lorna Montgomery Longwell.

His childhood was in Fargo, North Dakota, and his family moved from there to Columbia, Missouri, where he graduated from University High School in 1953. He was in the school orchestra, on the track and basketball teams and was delegate to Boys State. Bob was active in Boy Scouts and was elected to Order of the Arrow, serving two summers while in college as counselor at Boy Scout Camp, Lake of the Ozarks.

As a student at the University of Missouri, Bob belonged to Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity and University Singers. He graduated in 1958, with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. In graduate school, he worked as a laboratory assistant.

He was a member and usher of Missouri Methodist Church in Columbia. On Dec. 28, 1957, Bob married the love of his life, Barbara Lee Stenzel, in Cairo, Illinois.

He served in the Missouri National Guard from 1954 to 1962, being honorably discharged as a sergeant. His last year in the Guard was an 11-month tour of active duty at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, at the time of the Berlin Wall crisis. The work his unit did was teaching troops being sent to Vietnam how to use the World War II and Korean War radio equipment that they would be using in Vietnam. He was awarded the National Emergency Service Ribbon of Missouri in 1962.

From 1959 to 1964, Bob worked in methods development at Ralston Purina in St. Louis, where their sons were born. From 1964 to 1968, he was a pesticide residue chemist with the University of Nevada-Reno, where he also completed requirements for his Master of Science in Biochemistry. The family had joined St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in St. Louis, and they were active Episcopalians wherever they lived. The next four years, he was with the Indiana State Chemist Laboratory in Lafayette, also doing postgraduate work at Purdue.

After a year in Cairo with the family auto parts business and farm, he moved his family to Cape Girardeau in 1973. Here, Bob held the position of criminalist, specializing in forensic serology in the Southeast Missouri Regional Crime Laboratory on the university campus. His duties included testifying on his analyses in the courts of the 23 counties the crime lab served. In addition, he taught forensic science courses on the campus.

A member of Christ Episcopal Church, he was a treasurer, lay reader and vestryman.

Bob was a member of Midwest and Southwest Associations of Forensic Scientist, for which he attended meetings and presented papers of numerous regional meetings. As a member of International Electrophoresis Society and the International Society for Forensic Serology, he attended meetings in Vienna; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Athens, Greece. Through the years, he attended numerous sessions at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. In 1989, he was there for four months as a visiting scientist, working and learning in the early stages of DNA analyses. He accepted early retirement in September 1992 and was proud that his family could attend the dinner honoring him in the Show Me Center.

Bob was a Civil War buff, enjoying visits to sites from that time and reading about the war. He enjoyed doing genealogy with his wife and with her wrote "A Longwell-Montgomery Family History". He loved extensive world traveling and activities with his family, mystery novels, growing orchids, playing bridge and dancing with his wife Barbara of 65 years. He was also a two-time cancer survivor.

He is survived by his wife, Barbara Longwell of Cape Girardeau; two sons, Robert Alan (Laurie) Longwell of Union, Missouri, and Michael Lee (Susan) Longwell of Lakeway, Texas; and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Bob was preceded in death by his parents and sisters, Julia Ann Longwell and Lorna Johnson

Visitation will be from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 10, at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau.

Funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 10, at the funeral home, with the Rev. Donny Ford officiating. Entombment will be at Cape County Memorial Park Mausoleum in Cape Girardeau.

Memorial contributions may be given to Shriners Children's Hospital in St. Louis.

Online condolences may be made at www.fordandsonsfuneralhome.com.