Robert L. Shapiro, a Denver native and the brother of Charlene Loup, passed away Dec. 28, 2012, at his home in California.
Mr. Shapiro was born Feb. 19, 1927, in Denver to the late Ben and Freda Shapiro. He graduated from West High and entered CU at age 16.
Selected for a naval engineering honors program at Notre Dame, he returned to CU after the war and earned a BS in aeronautical engineering in 1947.
Mr. Shapiro ran a used car business in Denver until he was assigned to San Diego during the Korean War.
At a Passover seder for servicemen, he sat next to the wife of a rabbi, who fixed him up with his future wife Dorothy Mitchell. He was then delployed to Japan on the USS Yorktown.
Mr. Shapiro and Dorothy married upon his return in March, 1954. Mrs. Shapiro died in 1992.
A resident of San Diego for six decades, he was chief executive of Mitchell Investments and served on boards and committees that supported local neighborhoods. In 2003, he was honored by the Downtown Partnership.
He supported jazz, art and theater in San Diego, collected contemporary art, loved cooking, and was a car enthusiast and a wine collector.
Mr. Shapiro is survived by his children Ed (Nell) of Chevy Chase, Md., Jim (Sally) of San Francisco and Tom (Madeleine Grynsztejn) of Chicago; sister Charlene Loup of Denver; and grandchildren Jack, Griffin, Dorothy, Sam, Annie, Ben and Ellie.
Donations may be sent to JFS in Denver, the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library or Beth Israel, both in San Diego.
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
