Who was Bob (Big Red) Rankin

Bob (Big Red) Rankin District 12 SOAR

Bob Rankin was born in 1937 and was the oldest son having five brothers and one sister. He graduated from a small rural high school on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas. After High school, he ran the family dairy farm for two years and then joined the Navy. After boot camp he served on the USS Bennington, CVS 20, an anti-submarine warfare aircraft carrier home ported in San Diego. His ship took two cruises to the Western Pacific where they were home ported in Subic Bay in the Philippines and Yokosuka, Japan. His ship was one of the first to serve off the coast of Vietnam. Bob was a Third Class Electrician.

In 1961, and two months before he was discharged, Bob met his future wife, Anna Mary. They were married four months later. Bob got a job pumping gas before hiring in at Allied Chemical. The company then changed its name to Honeywell. Bob joined District 50 of the United Mine Workers Union where he served in many jobs including local union president. 

While working for Honeywell, Bob went to the California State University, Long Beach and got his Bachelors degree in Education. In 1991, he went to a workshop about becoming a delegate to the Democratic Convention and ran to be a delegate for Bill Clinton. He was elected to the DNC in 2000 and has been a delegate to the Democratic Convention several times. Bob was a Super Delegate in 2004 and also a Super Delegate in 2008.

Bob retired in 2003. At Honeywell, he started in the labor gang, then became a Serviceman and finally went to the Maintenance Dept. as a mechanic in the electric gang becoming an Electrician. A month before Bob retired, he was asked if he would consider becoming active in our SOAR organization and he became a SOAR Coordinator. Some time later, Bob was appointed to the SOAR Executive Board and he resigned in 2012.

I’ve lost track of Big Red Rankin but remember him as a very big man and a really nice guy. I wonder about him.