Robalee Setters
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I am writing this series of articles to, somehow, save memories about my father and mother and their place in history in the "Dog World".
When Gerry, my father, got out of the US Navy in 1945, he worked his ass off to provide for his family and get an education. He went to many schools, but he called William and Mary his alma mater.
He took many jobs from being an engineer to Test Pilot to Quality Control Engineer to upper management in aerospace companies. Between career jobs, he worked as a gas station attendant and being the captain of his own commercial tuna fishing boat (the "Ida Mae II"). He took many jobs because that is what fathers do to care for his family.
I will try to add stories about him as I go, but that will be for later.
While working for Huggins Laboratories in Hollister, Ca, he traveled a lot between northern and southern California. He was making quite a few trips per month. Shirlee, my mother, started having bad anxiety attacks when my dad went south, so my dad started taking her with him. He went to his company and brokered a deal: instead of driving from Hollister to San Jose, flying to Los Angeles, and then driving to Riverside, my dad would drive from Hollister to Riverside via the Pacheco Pass. Remember that this was before Highway 152 became a real highway. (For those of you who have never driven across Highway152, it gets up to a hundred degrees in the summer. The pass often closes each winter due to snow.) Driving +-350 miles cut three to four hours of the HLI-SJC-LAX-RIV trip, and he could Mom with him. The per diem mileage paid for a brand new Thunderbird and expenses AND saved the company money.
He made many trips in his T-bird, top-down, Mom with her headscarf - stopping at Casa-de-Fruit on the way down and Bakersfield on the way back for dinner.
Somewhere along the way, Gerry picked up a nasty virus of some kind and went a-bed for several months. While he was down, several of his friends and colleagues contracted the same thing, and several died. Before he got sick, Gerry was an avid Sports Car racer.
Main article: Race car
While he was recuperating, my folks thought it would be a good idea to get a companion dog. They investigated many possibilities and thought: if a dog, why not the best? Mom's grandparents had owned Irish Setters. Question one answered. After much research in AKC Journals (and some computer time using IBM punch cards), they decided to get a Thenderin-bred Irish Setter.
Gerry got his companion, and so started the "Robalee-Thenderin" Irish Setter breed program.
After several months of "getting well" Pop put on his business suit and got ready to go back to work. According to my Mom, he got as far as his car when he returned to the house crying and said, "I can't do this!"
After a meeting between our family attorney ("Uncle Stanley"), Mom and Pop, my dad put in for disability and went into semi-retirement. To make ends meet, he would work on Sports cars in his garage and backyard. They bought several other males and female Irish Setters and continued to breed Irish Setters, using the "Robalee Setter" name. "Robalee" is a portmanteau of "Rob-" from Roberts and "Lee" from Shirlee.
The backyard started looking like a parking lot for British sports cars. Pop decided to start another sports car repair business on De Anza Boulevard at Rainbow Drive. Mom, as she is known to do, suggested the name "Automobilia".
California Transportation (CalTrans) decided they needed the ground under his shop to make an on-ramp from Highway 85 to De Anza. Again a meeting between Mom, Pop, and Stan. Kahluah (sic) Kennels was in danger of being closed by the County for multiple problems. My parents took over the kennel. Now they had space for all of their Irish Setters.
A few years late, my father and mother bought Robalee Kennels in Mountain View from David and Barbara Packard of Varian / HP fame.
They expanded their breeding line to include English, Irish, and Gordon setters. Barbie, "American and Canadian Champion Gemody's Barbie Gal of Robalee" became my companion (Story to be added later.)
They bred over 250 AKC Champion setters and shipped them all over the world. Pop bought an RV and stripped the interior to the chassis. He rebuilt it into what became a "Mobile Kennel". He would drive to most of the West Coast dog shows. I installed mobile radios in the RV and the Kennel, some he and Mom folks could communicate with one another.
If you have a few hours, do a Google search for "Robalee Setters"
They lived at Robalee Kennels until their deaths.
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