Robert Mueller

Funeral services for Robert Stephen Mueller, 89, Lawrence, will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, May 29, 2010 at the Trinity Episcopal Church (10th & Vermont) in Lawrence.  Burial will be held at Mount Moriah, Kansas City, MO.   Robert died May 27, 2010 at Lawrence, KS.

Bob was born in Kansas City, Kansas on November 13, 1920 to Robert and Mary McAlpine Mueller.  He graduated from the University of Kansas, School of Business in 1942.  Following graduation, Bob enlisted in the Navy and was commissioned as a lieutenant.  He was part of the amphibious forces that landed in North Africa, Sicily, and Italy, and he commanded a landing craft in the D-Day invasion on Omaha Beach.

Bob’s professional career as a certified public accountant spanned over thirty years.
He was a partner and then managing partner of Sinderson, Henning, and Mueller and later senior partner of Arthur Young and Company (Ernst and Young), Kansas City, MO.  Bob served his profession as a member and president of the Kansas Society of CPAs and as founding member and trustee of its educational foundation.  He was also a member of the Council of the American Institute of CPAs.  Bob served on the Kansas Board of Accountancy and the Governor’s Commission on State Investment Policies.

Bob’s devotion to his alma mater included serving as a trustee of the KU Endowment Association, as executive vice president and national president of the Alumni Association, and as a member of the Board of Advisors of the Business School.  He was a member of the Adams Alumni Center Planning and Building Committee and the center’s Board of Governors.  KU recognized Bob’s service by awarding him the Fred Ellsworth Medallion in 1981.

While living in Kansas City, Bob was on the vestry at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church of Kansas City, KS.  He served as a director of The University Club and Mercury Club of Kansas City, MO, and the Crippled Children’s Nursery School of Children’s Mercy Hospital.  Bob was on the Board of Governors of the American Royal, an organization he had participated in as a boy.  He was a founding member of Kansas Investors and was the treasurer for thirty-five years.  Bob also served as treasurer of the City of Mission Hills.

After retiring to Lawrence, Bob was on the Board of Governors for Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s Endowment Association, a trustee of the Rotary Foundation, and a director of University National Bank.  He was an active supporter of the Lied Center and the Spencer Art Museum.  Bob served on the advisory board for KU’s Hall Center for the Humanities and the Dyche Natural History Museum.  Bob’s belief in life-long learning  led him to co-found The New Generation Society of Lawrence with Dr. Lynwood Smith.  He was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church.

Bob married by his wife of 60 years, Charlotte Rubart Mueller on December 27, 1949 in Kansas City, Kansas.  She survives of the home.  Other survivors include: two daughters, Martha Jane Gentry and husband, Charles, of Fort Scott; Mary Beth Doughty and husband, Tom, Arlington, Virginia; five grandchildren, Sara Werth and husband, Ryan; Michael Gentry and wife, Sara; Stephen Gentry; Thomas Doughty and Robert Doughty; and a great-granddaughter, Cecilia Ann.  He was preceded in death by his brother, Gene Mueller.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to the Robert S. Mueller Scholarship at the KU School of Business in care of the KU Endowment Association or East Heights Early Childhood Center, memorials may be sent in care of the Warren-McElwain Mortuary.