Create a Meaningful Tribute in Minutes

“The Heart Sings, the Soul Listens”

How by a thread each of our lives hang! Something small can change the arc of one’s life irrevocably.

Robert E. Lundquist (Bob) was well aware of this impermanence as he had multiple serious health issues that seemed to be increasing in number as he became older. Nevertheless, he was joyful and appreciative and always tried to make everyone around him comfortable and happy. He lived his gratitude for each minute of each day of his life. He truly lived in the moment, until that final moment arrived in the foggy early morning hours of Tuesday, December 3, 2024.

Bob was such a big personality with a charisma that emanated from a truly genuine, empathetic heart that cared about others. With his innate joy and the quickest of wits, he could befriend anyone. He thought deeply about everything and his curiosity and quest for knowledge never diminished. He committed his life to the arts, and music, in particular, but he had a life-long fascination for the sciences. He was forever young in his thinking and in boundless empathy for others. His expansive interests imbued him with a quality almost like an immortality – someone you could never imagine leaving the earth because there were always more things to learn, discover, savor, share and celebrate. But on December 3rd, his magnificent, loving heart just had no more to give and Bob peacefully slipped away.

How is this possible? How can someone like Bob be ‘gone’? That is what all of us grapple with. In truth, Bob will never be gone. He lives on in the hearts and minds of all who loved, knew, worked with, interacted with, or studied with him. His impact is extensive and deep.

His story began 76 years ago in still war-ravaged Germany when he was born in Gustavesburg to a young German woman who had fallen in love with an American soldier. Bob, his brother and his mother followed that American soldier, Robert McBurney, to America on the S. S. Washington when he was about 3. Already his curiosity in play, he managed to escape his mother’s watchful eye, and somehow climbed a vertical ship’s ladder of some height to the wheelhouse where the astonished ship’s captain kept him until his mother could be found.

The family moved around the United States until his father was assigned to San Diego. He was enrolled in Catholic elementary school in Ocean Beach where they lived in a tiny house only a short walk from the ocean. There his love and awe of the ocean grew along with him. His parents divorced and another military man, C.Lundquist, became his stepfather. In 7th grade, the family moved to Nampa, Idaho, and he was enrolled again in Catholic school. He began piano lessons in 6th grade and by 8th grade was composing his own music, and learning difficult pieces, like the Warsaw Concerto. (He would tell you it was not well played by his later standards!) At Nampa High School he excelled in his classes, and continued to advance in his piano studies. He applied for and received an academic and a music scholarship to Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.

In the fall of 1966, off he went to Gonzaga University, nervous, but eager. In his first visit to the Gonzaga Music Department located in a charming old Victorian house, he met Patricia Cahill from Mount Vernon, Washington, who was to become his wife and muse. She was playing “Für Elise”!

They eloped in Fall 1968 at the Caldwell County Courthouse in Idaho, and moved back to Spokane in time for Bob to enroll in the second semester at Gonzaga. The Vietnam War was raging and the draft was active; he had an educational deferment. In 1970, the University closed its Music Department for financial reasons, and he transferred to Western Washington University. When it became apparent after two years that extensive requirements were going to impede his receiving a degree in a timely fashion, he wrote to Gonzaga requesting that he be allowed to transfer his WWU credits back to Gonzaga toreceive his degree. His reputation at Gonzaga still much remembered, the University agreed and he received a Bachelor of Music degree in 1972, magna cum laude, with minors in voice and philosophy.

Pat and Bob made their permanent home in Bellingham, a place they had come to love. In 1974 they moved into their current home which they rented for 19 years, then ultimately were able to purchase the house. The large property became their joint artists’ palette where both of their artistic sensibilities created a place of magic and repose that inspired Pat’s artwork and Bob’s poetry. They planted specific and unusual trees, now mature, which add blossom and color in most seasons. In 2020, they worked with the City of Bellingham to bequeath the house and property to the City for a park in the Columbia neighborhood. The proposed bequest was reviewed by the Parks Board and the City Council and approved. It was Bob’s fervent desire, and is still for Pat, that this dream be realized in the future.

He loved his garden and nature with passionate intensity. The upper house windows facing the four directions allowed him an exquisite aerial view of the constantly changing garden landscape as well as the of weather, sky, sunsets and moonsets. These provided limitless inspiration for his poetry.

Bob’s life work was teaching music: piano, voice and composition. He excelled at it, not just having the technical skill and knowledge, but the intuitive ability to know when to push a student to work harder, and when to pull back; he also could keenly assess from the first audition, what the student’s current level was and assign works to help that student become the best musician possible. It was progressive, kind, encouraging teaching which made students practice diligently because they wanted to, not because they were told to. His focus was always what was best for the student, not about making a reputation for himself. His students consistently over the years did, however, win awards, scholarships and recognition in piano, voice and composition at local, state and national levels. But this was about them, not him. Many from his studio are making their own marks as teachers, composers, accompanists, soloists. He was very proud of all his students, all ages and abilities, and loved them all. Awards are nice, yes, but the people are everything.

The nearly 50 years he was a member of the Washington State Music Teachers’ Association (WSMTA) and the Music Teachers’ National Association, he was actively involved in promoting private music education, adjudicating festivals, competitions and composition contests, and giving master classes in piano and composition. Bob’s stated goal as a judge was always to critique in such a way as to get the student back to the keyboard to work harder, or in the case of composers, to motivate them to keep composing as in that way they would grow in their skills. Honest, kind suggestions he always found were more productive. No negativity from Bob! He was a sought-after workshop presenter all around the state on such topics as how to start teaching composition, motivation in the studio, little known repertoire gems, etc. He taught many of his colleagues, and always loved helping fellow teachers in any way he could.

He founded the Whatcom County Chapter of WSMTA in 1983 with like-minded colleagues to provide more opportunities for music students, including excellent, monthly recitals, and the unique Music History Day event which was his inspiration and idea. The event was held annually for 23 years and provided students an opportunity to research and complete projects in music that were not necessarily “performance oriented”. This really opened the door for students to understand that “music” was more than just lessons and practicing. After 37 remarkable years, the Whatcom County Chapter disbanded in June, 2021, as a result of the pandemic, and teachers relocating and retiring.

He was inducted into the WSMTA Hall of Fame in 2004 for outstanding excellence and leadership in teaching. He was the 2005 WSMTA Commissioned Composer of the Year, composing his piece “Spiritualis” for three solo female voices. He was completing treatment for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and the piece was a thank you to God for his life. The text is based on his two favorite prayers, “Ave Maria” and The Prayer of St. Francis. One of his outstanding senior voice students sang the first soprano part in the piece which was composed with her voice in mind. He was also honored to be chosen to be the Teacher-Composer for the 2001 convention for which he composed the song, “Can You Not Hear the Celestial Sounds?”, a vocalise for soprano and piano.

He closed the studio in 2020 just as the pandemic was starting, and officially retired the following year. He and Pat have enjoyed their joint retirement years and never tired of spending time together. They adored each other and enjoyed long leisurely coffee time in the mornings, and animated, relaxed dinners and evening music or conversation.

Bob and Pat deeply loved and respected each other, and inspired one another. Pat would edit his work, and he would critique her art. She says that to be loved and cherished by one such as he, has been her greatest joy; she has received enough love to last her a lifetime, however long that may be. Now her heart sings, and his soul listens.

Bob loved his siblings, brother Ronald (Cecelia), sisters Rose, Ruby and Renee (Carroll). He has many nieces and nephews, and was most actively involved with Renee (Wayne), Robin (Chris), Jay (Chris), Jeff, Jenny (Mike), James (Sharon), and Tascha. They have been a joy for him as well.

Bob and Pat chose “terramation” for the disposition of their remains. Another term for this is “natural organic reduction”. This new technology was approved by Washington State in 2019 and became law in 2020, the first state to do so. It is a safe, clean, and natural way that helps the body decompose with the aid of natural materials, such as straw, alfalfa and wood chips, ultimately producing viable, life-giving compost. Bob’s body will be transported to an authorized facility to begin that process. When it is finished, his compost will return home to Lundquist Woods and will become part of the garden.

The current plan is a very small ceremony in the garden in May, Bob’s birthday month, to return him to the garden’s embrace.