Bob Zeidler
Larry Wolfe
California native Robert “Bob” Zeidler was born in San Diego and grew up in the San Bernardino area, graduating from Eisenhower High School in Rialto. As a 19-year-old, Bob decided to join the Air Force. He served for four years, first as a flight line mechanic for B-52 bombers, then as a telephony specialist. He was lucky that most of his service was near home. He was first based at March AFB in Riverside, then after a brief tour in Guam, he was assigned to Norton AFB in San Bernardino. The skills he learned in the Air Force set the stage for a long career in the telecom industry.
Bob’s first civilian job was as an installation and maintenance technician for Crescent City Telephone Company. After nearly three years, he relocated to the Seattle area, working for infrastructure contractor Henkels & McCoy. After another couple of years, it was back to California where he worked for an interconnect company in Sacramento. Due to the escalating cost of living in the Golden State, like many Californians, Bob decided to move to Arizona, landing a job with Communications Consulting, Inc. Four years later, he was hired by America West Airlines in their Internal Telecom Support Department. Bob spent several years with America West before being hired as a residential maintenance technician by US West (later merged with Qwest and then CenturyLink). He also worked on T1 and fiber optics networks in their Commercial Telecom Division. Bob retired in 2021.
Softball has been a big part of Bob’s life since the early 1980s. He’s played on all types of teams over the years, including some very successful tournament teams. He joined our league in 2022 and has proven to be a solid-hitting, good-fielding outfielder with speed. He also played in the Chandler Competitive League for many years. He still subs for a team in that league but says everyone else on the team is “way younger,” so it was time to graciously bow out!
The running family joke is that Bob met his wife Evelyn through an ad on Craigslist. In truth, he did hire Evelyn’s housekeeping company, which was listed on Craigslist, and that’s how they met. That was 12 years ago, and they’ve now been married for almost 11 years. Bob has two children from a previous marriage, son Nicholas and daughter Bree. There are also five grandkids. He and Evelyn are the owners of First Response Roofing AZ. Bob says he just stays out of the way but does help out if needed.
Currently, travel and some other activities are on hold as, sadly, Bob’s dad has dementia and has been living with them for over two years. That obviously cuts back on what Bob and Evelyn can now do, but Bob embraces the role of caregiver and is thankful for the help he receives from Evelyn, other family members, and the Veterans Administration personnel.