~ IN MEMORY ~
Military veteran, WA/DL Capt. Robert Paul Scheinblum
October 11, 1939 ~ December 25, 2024
Captain Robert Paul Scheinblum, age 85. Bob joined Western Airlines in January 1972, and retired in 1999, with Delta Air Lines. He is survived by his three children, Stephen, Lori, and David, ten grandchildren, and four great grandchildren.
Bob Scheinblum was born on October 11, 1939, to Fredrick and Lee Scheinblum in New York City. He grew up with his brother, Richie Scheinblum, in the East Bronx, playing baseball and basketball. Bob attended Pace College in New York and was inducted into the Pace Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012, for basketball, having been named the captain of the team and Pace Athlete of the Year in 1960.
After college, Bob was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the USMC, and immediately started law school at the University of Arizona. After graduating with honors, Bob served as the Chief Defense Counsel for 1stMARDIV at Camp Pendelton, CA. In September 1965, just days from deploying to Vietnam, Bob’s request for a different career was approved, and he instead made his way to Naval flight training in Pensacola, receiving his Wings of Gold in 1967. Bob went on to fly 297 combat missions in Vietnam in his A-4 Skyhawk between 1967 and 1968 for VMA-233.
After Vietnam, Bob returned to California, accepting an appointment as a federal prosecuting attorney while flying A-4’s in the Marine reserves. In 1972, Bob resigned from the U.S. attorney’s office to fly for Western Airlines. In 1981, Western was acquired by Delta Airlines and Bob moved his family to Park City, Utah. Though the USMC did not have a flying unit in Utah, the Army did and LtCol Scheinblum transferred to the Utah National Guard to fly AH-1 Cobras as Chief Warrant Officer 3 Scheinblum in what would culminate as a 35-year career in the U.S. military.
In 1993, Bob and his wife, Sherrill, made their final move to Lake Cherokee near Longview, Texas. In 1999, Bob retired from Delta, having served on the B727, B757, B767, DC10, and L1011, as well as a Line Check Airman on the B737. Bob continued flying C-421s for Mercy Medflight, a charitable air ambulance service, as well as Gulfstreams and Citations for a private corporation, until hanging up his leather jacket for good in 2014, having amassed almost 23,000 hours of flight time. Bob was honored with The Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award in 2017.
He passed from this life on December 25, 2024. He will be missed immensely.
A celebration of his life will be held at Lake View Funeral Home Chapel in Longview, Texas, on Sunday, January 19, 2025, at 10am.