Robert Stoffel, who went from being a professional photographer to helping build the Viking lander that went to Mars, died of leukemia June 12 at his Evergreen home. He was 87.
A memorial service is planned at 2 p.m. Sunday at Evergreen United Methodist Church, 3757 S. Ponderosa Drive.
Stoffel, who was called “Smokey” for most of his life, took over his father’s photography business, the Stoffel Studio, but sold it in the early 1960s.
“He loved photography, but he had new interests,” said his son Kirk Stoffel of Elizabeth.
While working at Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin), Stoffel helped design and test components for NASA’s space program.
Among those were the Lunar Rover that carried Apollo 15 (1971) and Apollo 16 (1972) astronauts while they were on the moon. He helped program the computer that was on one of the Viking landers, the unmanned space vehicles that were sent to Mars in 1975. Kirk Stoffel later saw the lander on display at the Smithsonian. “It was about as big as an SUV, but wider,” he said.
Stoffel was a “fix-it” guy in his neighborhood and was always willing to explain things to his children. “We were almost afraid to ask questions because we’d get more information than we wanted,” said his son Mike Stoffel of Parker.
Robert William Stoffel was born near Byers on May 8, 1922, and moved with his family to Denver when he was 2 years old.
He graduated from East High School, studied physics and math at the University of Denver and then enlisted in officers’ training in the Navy. He studied electronics and radar at Bowdoin College in Bruns wick, Maine, and did electronics repair training for the Navy, retiring as a lieutenant commander.
After the service, he went to an electronics school in San Francisco and graduated from DU in math and physics.
He worked for Lockheed 25 years.
A longtime skier and outdoorsman, he skied and hiked until he was 85 and was a member of the U.S. Senior Ski Team.
After retiring, he volunteered for 16 years preparing tax returns for seniors through an AARP program.
He and his first wife, Barbara Thornton, married in 1948 and had three sons and one daughter. After their divorce, he married Bette Jane Smith, who had a daughter. They had two sons together. After her death, he married Mary Alice McGrail, who had two sons.
In addition to his sons, he is survived by his wife; two daughters, Kathy Richardson of Lafayette and Terry Nash of Fort Collins; three other sons, Dave Stoffel of Breckenridge, Eric Stoffel of Greeley and Steve Stoffel of Littleton; 11 grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and his stepchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
