Community Celebrates the life of Robert E. Schaefer Sr.

LOMA LINDA>> On April 6, 2017 a celebration of life was held in honor of Robert E. (Bob) Schaefer Sr. who passed away on Dec. 30, 2016. Bob was born in Loma Linda, California, on July 2, 1941. He was a twin to Richard Schaefer and had one sister, Linda Friedenberg. Bob was husband to Kathi Kopitzke and father to Robert E. Schaefer II and Carolyn R. Montgomery. The family lived in Yucaipa, California and later moved to Forest Falls, California. Bob was the owner of Apollo Mobile Home Supply, which currently has locations in Palm Springs, Hemet, San Bernardino, Mojave Valley and Arizona. In his lifetime, Bob employed more than 400 people. He had 26,000 contracts, more than 6,000 of which were for roofing mobile homes, mobile offices and mobile classrooms. Bob had many interests. As a legal historian, he spent his spare time studying the life of Captain William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a relative of the family. He also studied the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Rights to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the California Code of Civil Procedure, the California Civil Code and the California Penal Code. He also studied modern law codes, statutes rules and regulations. Bob was also an attorney and studied law for 35 years. His brother, Richard, said a judge in San Bernardino used to refer to him as "her favorite constitutionalist." Bob spent 7 years as a volunteer fireman with the Forest Falls Fire Protection district. He also spent 7 years as a deputy with the San Bernardino County Sheriff Department’s Valley of the Falls Search and Rescue Team. In his lifetime, Bob helped more than 100 homeless people, some of whom he even let live on his ranch in San Bernardino. Whenever asked why he would do such a thing, Richard remembers him quoting Matthew 25:40, which reads, “In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye he done it unto me.” Bob is survived by his children, Robert E. Schaefer II (Verdell), Carolyn Montgomery (Bill), grandchildren Amanda McMillan (Trevor), Michael Montgomery (Daynell), Kathleen Schaefer, Stephen Schaefer, great-grandson Weston Montgomery, his twin brother Richard A. (Dick) Schaefer and his father Robert A. Schaefer (Florence). His mother, Dorothy Hall Schaefer and his sister, Linda Friedenberg, preceded him in death.