Robert (Bob) Alexander Born May 4, 1924 in San Jose, CA, to Mark William and Martha Emeline Alexander, Bob died on Jan. 4, 2010 at O'Connor Hospital in SJ. Bob spent his early childhood in San Jose and eventually ended up in the Paso Robles area where he loved working on family ranches and also attended Paso Robles High. He served in the U.S. Coast Guard during WWII, and afterward returned to central CA. In the early 1950's, Bob moved back to San Jose. His life-long curiosity and fascination with electronics led him to IBM in SJ, where he found technical work in the disk storage development labs and thrived. It was during this time he met his loving wife, (Anny) Malfrid Vehn and married her in San Francisco in 1957. They had a son, Roald Robert, and daughter, Anne Solveig, whom they raised in San Jose at the same residence where they spent most of their 52 years together. Bob took pride in his work at IBM where he contributed significantly to the beginnings of the disk drive industry, starting with IBM's RAMAC disk drive--considered to be the first disk drive in storage technology-and later the Winchester hard drive. He remained with IBM as a Senior Lab Specialist for almost 29 years until his retirement in 1984. Bob is preceded in death by his brothers, William Alexander and Ray Alexander. He is survived by his wife, Malfrid Alexander, son Roald Robert Alexander, daughter Anne Solveig Alexander, son-in-law Eric Rauch, and sister Donna Lee Heer Friends are invited to funeral services to be held Friday, Jan. 15 at 1pm, at Oak Hill Memorial Park, Chapel of Roses, 300 Curtner Ave., SJ. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the American Heart Association (1-800-242-8721) or Nike Animal Rescue Fund, P.O. Box 26587, SJ, CA 95159.

Published in San Jose Mercury News from January 10 to January 12, 2010.