Obituary

ROBERT WALLACE MAPEL
January 27, 1924 – August 12, 2023

Robert Wallace Mapel passed away peacefully on August 12, 2023 in Aliso Viejo, California at the age of 99. He was predeceased five months earlier by his wife Sylvia Trinneer Mapel.

Bob was born on January 27, 1924 in Los Angeles to John Wallace Mapel and Helen Reed Mapel. John Wallace Mapel, president of Goodyear California, died tragically at age 49, leaving his wife Helen to raise three young sons.

Because his birthday was in January, Bob normally began each grade in midyear. In 1941 with the War impending, Helen proposed Bob leave Los Angeles High School before the end of his senior year, entering college without finishing high school. He passed the entrance test and was admitted to Stanford. War started that fall and when the draft board called in the Spring, he was deferred as a Engineering student because he had joined the Navy program.

After two years at Stanford, the Navy sent Bob to Caltech, where he entered the service while completing his Engineering degree. Thereafter he served in the Navy Civil Engineer Corps., stationed in Okinawa and at Manus off the coast of New Guinea.

After various jobs and hitch-hiking around Europe for 6 months, Bob joined two college friends, Ted Munroe and Bill Paul, who had started a business as manufacturer’s representatives. He earned $37 the first six weeks and paid his own expenses. In his words, “things worked out,” and when they sold PAUL-MUNROE HYDRAULICS 33 years later, they had 300 employees, 5 offices in California, and sold pumping units and valve panels to missile bases and other industries across the US, and to the nuclear industry in Germany, France and South Korea.

Bob married Sylvia Kay Trinneer (who had worked as Personnel Manager at Paul Monroe) in 1977 and, in his words, they “lived happily ever after.” After retirement, Bob and Sylvia traveled incessantly to Mexico, to Alaska where they loved to camp, and to less well-known destinations (such as The Silk Route).

Bob had a daughter, Sarah Matthews Mapel, from a previous marriage. Sylvia had a son, Don Smith, from a previous marriage.  Don has two daughters, Tuesday and Mystery. Sylvia is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews.

Bob is also survived by his niece Susan Mapel Kahn, grand-nephews Andrew Kahn and Matthew Kahn, and his nephews John Jameson Mapel, David Mapel, and Richard Mapel.

A graveside ceremony will be held at Forest Lawn (Glendale) on Wednesday, September 13, 2023 at 9:30 a.m., where Bob will be laid to rest next to many generations of Mapels who have been buried on Sunrise Slope.