Words & Remembrances

I discovered Robert's book, titled Rhizology, in the Fall of 2004. A copy was given to me by a man who had hired Robert as a temp draftsman at an engineering firm in the early 1970s. He found Robert such an intriguing person he had saved Rhizology, yet never spoke to him again.

Running about 50 pages, it is truly the unbelievable work of a very peculiar personality. Not an actual published work and instead a stack of stapled, xeroxed sheets, Rhizology looks to have been produced around 1971.

There are graphs, drawings, and rejection letters, but the centerpiece is a fascinating essay in three parts, from which the book got its title. I'm still not sure what, if anything, it means. However, Robert had complete faith in his abilities: the price on the front was $17 - pretty steep for a stack of copies in the early 70s.

Interestingly, the word "rhizology" has since been adopted by plant scientists, specifically meaning the scientific study of plant roots. See here.

Below are selected excerpts - click on each thumb for a different page:

Rhizology: Drawings, Rejection Letters, Ephemera

Rhizology: The Essay, Part One (7 pgs)

Rhizology: The Essay, Part Two

About the Author page

Remembrances

As part of an ongoing series (with any luck), this section will contain personal remembrances of Robert by those who had contact with him.

In the late 1970's I worked at G&H Technology on 17th street in Santa Monica. Bob was hired there as a temporary draftsman and worked for six to twelve months there. The general impression of his co-workers was that he was eccentric if not downright strange. He was always pleasant and cheerful, tended not to initiate conversations but if spoken to could bend your ear for as long as you were prepared to listen. He was medium height and slight build, close-cropped gray hair and slightly stooped at this time in his life. One of the things that I noticed about him was that he wore a long-sleeved shirt, sweater and jacket even through the summer when the drafting room got quite warm. The collar and cuffs of the shirt had shiny black rings from being worn continually. In appearance he looked only a short step from a street person but his own perception of himself was quite different. He still believed himself on the verge of being recognized for one of the many talents he felt he had in abundance. His desk had the illustrated "space" postcards and the self portrait as a centurion, which he seemed to feel was still an accurate representation of his appearance. He told us that he worked as an entertainer at children's parties and I recall hearing some tracks of a cassette tape he had brought in. The only line of the lyric I can recall is; "Rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, rock, I'm a good old boy!" He thought that was a reasonable representation of the idiom. I hope this vague recollection adds something to your knowledge of Bob. Sorry to hear he is gone.

Kevin Molyneux