Robert "Stan" Stanley Moffitt, Sr.

Robert Stanley Moffitt, Sr. lived a full life filled with family. He was the youngest child of Elva “Kid” Latham and Virgil Leroy Moffitt of El Centro, California. He grew up in the Imperial Valley of California, hanging out with his beloved older brother, riding his bike with his best friend to get Orange Nehis and rolled tacos at Camacho’s Restaurant, and later helping his father with farming for Bright and Co. He attended Imperial Valley College and San Diego State University.

As a draft-eligible young man in the late 1960s, he knew that eventually his draft number would come up. When he couldn’t get the classes he needed and his draft number was getting close, he joined the United States Army as Private 1 and was discharged as a Specialist

Five (the equivalent of Sergeant today). He served in-country in Vietnam at Vung Tau as part of the 147th Assault Support Helicopter Company, 1st Aviation Brigade (147th Hillclimber), where he worked on Chinooks, survived three close calls, including two where his Chinook fell out of the sky, and was exposed to Agent Orange. Like many Vietnam veterans, he did not talk much about his experiences when he came home, but he began to open up about them when one of his sons chose to join the Army in the 1980s. In 2016, he was interviewed for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project. You can hear his recollections at https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.114016/

After a first marriage, in the 1970s he found the love of his life and near-constant companion, Patricia Jean “Pat” Otto Moffitt, while working for Southern Pacific Railroad in Southern California. They were forever in love with each other, through thick and thin, and even in their final years were still being told by their kids to “Get a room!” They combined her four kids with visits from his three kids from a previous marriage to create a blended family of seven kids. While watching the TV show Eight is Enough, Stan said, “I’m glad we don’t have eight kids!” and Pat responded “Not so fast!”, adding one more to the mix. From that beginning, they created a family of 18 surviving grandchildren and 20 surviving great-grandchildren plus another great-grandchild on the way. In later years, they adopted two of their great-grandchildren.

Stan’s journey with Pat took him from California to Nevada to Oklahoma and finally to Colorado, where he and Pat made Colorado Springs their home. In addition to his time in the Army, with the railroad, and in agriculture, Stan had a variety of jobs during his life. Always one of the world’s biggest but most unheralded movie buffs, his favorite job was in a movie video rental store, where he loved to talk to customers and introduce them to new-to-them movies. He always had a movie recommendation for you, truly the Leonard Maltin of our family. He loved new movie technology and was always an early adapter of it, from the VCR to the laser disc, to the DVD to streaming. His remote controls have become like holiday tinsel, we just keep finding them around the house.

In addition to a life-long love of movies, Stan always loved ten-pin (big pin) bowling. He bowled for most of his life, either in leagues, or when he didn’t have time to bowl league, he still took the family bowling on a regular basis to keep up his skills. A lefty, he had a wicked hook that would

ride the very edge of the lane before crossing left to right. He never achieved the coveted 300 perfect game, but was overjoyed (and a little jealous) when one of his sons achieved that standard over and over. He continued to bowl until the last few months of his life, and many family members still bowl in leagues today.

Later in life, Stan developed a love of rubber duckies, which he found delightful, collecting many hundreds of small ducks of all kinds for his collection. When you find a cute rubber duck, bowl a great game, or see a good movie, please think of Stan.

As Stan and Pat were constant companions in life, they also left us near simultaneously in death. Pat had a quick but aggressive and terminal form of cancer. Stan’s health had been declining for several years. Stan died on September 24, 2024, and Pat quickly followed him early in the morning of September 26. Services for both Stan and Pat will be held at 11 AM on Thursday, October 10, 2024 at Pikes Peak National Cemetery, with a post-service casual get-together at Fountain Creek Regional Park in Fountain, CO. Due to the windy conditions at the cemetery, the family asks for no flowers at the service. As many people who would have normally sent flowers have asked how to memorialize Stan and/or Pat, Stan and Pat would have much preferred that we get together after the service and tell stories about them over snacks.

If you would have usually memorialized Stan by sending flowers, please make a contribution to your favorite local charity in his name, or you can contribute to paying for snacks at the get-together through a GoFundMe authorized by the family https://www.gofundme.com/f/hcahdm-join-us-to-support-a-grieving-familys-needs or via PayPal authorized by the family https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/dmhollems. Any excess funds will be used to pay for funeral and other final expenses.