Robert M. Cramer

Robert Martin Cramer Jan 20, 1940 – Jan 18, 2025 Robert Martin Cramer (aka, Robert, Smiley, Rube, Grandpa, Pop Pop) passed away Saturday, Jan 18, 2025. He endured many years with Alzheimer’s and, in his last couple months, he also struggled mightily with the effects of COPD. He was the son of William Martin and Levia Michilini Cramer. He spent his first few years in Oakmont, PA, until the family moved to Distant shortly after his little sister, Gloria Harman (Terry) was born. Growing up he caddied at the golf course for 50 cents/round, picked wild berries for his mother, roamed the woods, hunted and fished a bit, and made many, many friends. His favorite car was the 57 Chevy, although he did think it would be cool to have a Corvette. My favorite story about him and cars is that his parents came down to visit shortly after he moved to Washington and his Dad pulled him aside and said, “I hear I have the fastest car in town. You wouldn’t know anything about that would you?” He broke his back as a young teen (jumping off a bridge into 4 feet of water – repeatedly), so he couldn’t get hired by the steel mills or mines, which were the primary source of good employment in western PA. Being smart and practical, he took Typing in high school. Learning a marketable skill might have been a brilliant move, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he also saw the upside of being in a class overwhelmingly populated with attractive females. Whatever his motivation, those typing skills qualified him for a file clerk job that eventually led to a very successful career in Federal procurement. At 19 he and a couple other guys accompanied a friend who was headed to Washington to go to school to be a court stenographer. He was quite taken with big city life so he asked his Dad for a little money to tide him over until he could get a job. His Dad took out a $90 loan for him and he parlayed that $90 into a job picking up and delivering medical lab samples and then to a government job where he went from a grade 2 clerk to Deputy Director of GSA’s IT Schedules. He was incredibly smart and had a soft- spoken way about him that earned people’s trust. And, when he got an opportunity, he made sure the folks who gave him that chance didn’t regret it. He met and married Portia Fillers, with whom he raised three amazing children, Keith Martin (Anjy), Christopher William (Kelli), and Tara Louise Glover (Ryan). He is also survived by 10 grandchildren: Taylor Humpert (Brad), Spencer Merson (Cody), Camron Cramer (Evan Zelig), Carsyn Cramer, Nicholas Breymaier, Samantha Breymaier, Isabelle Glover, West Glover, Shan Cramer, and Cross Glover. At the time of his death, he had 9 great-grandchildren. There will undoubtedly be more. He married Kathleen Warren in 1989. He was an outstanding toy shopper. Christmas was the best because it was an excuse for an hours long excursion to Toys R Us and then to go out for a bite to eat and a beer to gleefully toast the magnificent haul and speculate on how well the gifts might be received. He loved playing ball and met most of his life-long friends on the ball field. He played softball for Eastern Liberty and later the PGI team. When he and his teammates got too old to be competitive on the ball field, they turned to golf and formed the Wednesday Night Golf League at the Glen Dale golf course. He took home a stunning trophy at the end of the league’s first season and promptly ensconced it in the center of the dining room table and then invited his father-in-law, to dinner. Bob then acted like there was nothing unusual in the room and relished the sight of the poor old man eyeing that beautiful statue of a golfer with perfect form and waiting to hear about it. This hilarious stand-off went on for nearly half an hour. Eventually his father-in-law couldn’t stand it any longer and asked where THAT came from. There were also the annual golf tournaments at Deep Creek Lake and Ocean City as well as various one-off outings. These one-time tournaments usually had descriptive, but boring, names - like the Ray Shields Memorial. It might have had a boring name, but he did come home with two very nice folding camp chairs from that one. But his friend John Cranwell outdid himself when he organized the tournament at the Rattlewood Golf Course and named it the Rattlewood Rumble. No matter where he lived, Bob met the neighbors. At the Laurel townhouse, there was almost always a driveway gathering in the summer on Friday evenings as well as impromptu cookouts on the deck. In the winter there was at least one Friendsgiving and a few progressive dinners. The Friday tradition continued in Bowie, where the neighbors would gather in the court after work. And in Frederick, neighbors would stop by and visit on that fabulous front porch. He’s the one who always met the neighbors and made new friends. His quietness was sometimes misinterpreted as introversion. But he was just quietly outgoing. Alzheimer’s stole so much of who he was. But we need to take a moment to remember who he really was – a guy who loved nothing better than to have his kids and grandkids over. Some of the best times were in the yard with kids running through the sprinkler, making chalk drawings on the sidewalk or tumbling in the grass while the grown-ups sat at tables catching up. Or taking little ones down the street to what one child said was the best playground in the world. Through all those years, he kept the toys from his own kids’ early years. The criteria for making it into his well-curated collection was, first and foremost, the toy survived three little kids and their friends and, secondly, it was a toy that held their interest for several years. No matter where he lived, there was always a place for those toys and the kids would go straight to them on every visit. Some of those toys now reside with his wife and kids still play with them. The man he was before Alzheimer’s stole him will be sorely missed. Friends and family are invited to reminisce about a man who lived his life to the best of his ability, who loved his family deeply and treasured his friends. We will be gathering at the Worthington Manor Golf Club, 8329 Fingerboard Rd, Urbana, MD 21704 at noon on Sunday, Feb. 16th .