Robert “Buddy” Gordon

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution announces with great sorrow the death of former employee Robert “Buddy” Gordon on April 16, at home in West Chatham, Mass. He was 77.

Buddy was born in Hyannis, Mass., on May 13, 1931, to Everett Maxwell Gordon and Alice McCollum Gordon and was raised in Manomet. After graduating from Plymouth High School, he served in the military during the Korean War. He was assigned to the 45th Infantry Division, 180th Infantry Regimen, and 2nd Battalion H Company. He was honorably discharged, and received multiple medals including the Purple Heart, Good Conduct Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, Korean Service Medal with one Bronze Star, and other decorations and citations.

Buddy began his employment at WHOI in 1967 as a deckhand on the R/V Lulu.  He then went on to work as an able bodied seaman on the research vessels Lulu, Gosnold, and Chain. From 1976 until he left in 1981, he was back and forth as acting bosun and able bodied seaman on the R/V Oceanus. He went on to work at the Steamship Authority in 1981 and retired in 2002.

Buddy was an avid bicycle rider and gardener, and enjoyed birding, reading, and being near the ocean.

He is survived by his wife, Linnea H. Gordon, and his brother Donald Gordon of Englewood, FL.

Services and burial are private.

Some of the information for this obituary was taken from the Falmouth Enterprise.