Robert Earl Ellis
Graveside service for Robert Earl Ellis was at 2 pm. Sunday at Earle's Chapel Cemetery.
Mr. Ellis died on Dec. 4, 2007. He was born April 12, 1953 in Port Arthur, the son of Lawanda L. Ellis and the late Herbert G. Ellis.
When he was three years old, his father took a job with Aramco, and the family moved to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia where Rob grew up.
He returned to the United States in 1967 to attend high school at Allen Military Academy in Bryan.
After graduation in 1969, he joined the Navy where he served 25 years, retiring as a chief petty officer.
During his career in the Navy he served two tours in Vietnam, as well as sailing with both the Pacific and Mediterranean Fleets. The last 15 years of his navy career were as an Explosives Ordinance Disposal (EOD) technician. He eventually became an instructor for the Navy's EOD School in Indianhead, Md. where he helped develop new methods and instructional material for the school.
After retirement he returned to the Jacksonville area and started his own business developing and building low-cost rocket motors for the model rocketry community.
Survivors are his mother: Lawanda L. Ellis of Jacksonville, brothers and sisters-in-law: James Russell and Dixie Ellis of Rusk and Reed and Lucy Ellis of Dallas; uncles and aunts, Billy and Pat Ellis of Nederland, Virginia Richardson of Lufkin, Geraldine Watson of Silsbee, Faye Lane of Tyler; nephews, Erich, Stephen, and Robert Ellis; and nieces, Lara and Teisha Ellis. Arrangements were under the direction of Autry Funeral Home.