1935 ~ 2025
Robert Elmer Taylor
August 21, 1935 - June 29, 2025
Robert (Bob) Taylor was born in Durango, Colorado, in the midst of the Depression, the second of three sons born to Lloyd Taylor and Golda Bramall. As a young man, Bob was trained to work hard in whatever endeavor was put in front of him, from dry wheat farming, work in a flour mill or laying oil and gas pipes. His family moved to Farmington, New Mexico, where he met the love of his life and eternal companion, Dorene Smith, at Farmington High School. They married in the Salt Lake City Temple in 1956, and Bob graduated from Brigham Young University the following year. Bob made his professional career as an executive in the oil and gas and petrochemical industries, starting in El Paso and Odessa Texas with El Paso Natural Gas Company.
Sensing a change in the industry and for his family’s benefit, Bob moved his family north to Omaha, Nebraska, where he worked for Northern Natural Gas (eventually Enron) and then to Northbrook, Illinois, when he transferred to Northern Petrochemical Company. In making the pivotal decision to move to the Midwest, Bob and Dorene provided their four children with exceptional education, music, drama and athletic opportunities in Northbrook. The family made many life-long friends during their 20 years living in the North Shore Second Ward of the LDS Church.
After Enron imploded in 2001, Bob and Dorene moved to the Denver, Colorado, area where Bob ambitiously pursued his start up consulting business, Taylor Stratmark, which provided advisory services on energy and gas utilization throughout the West. He maintained active engagement in the energy sector and technology throughout his life. Eventually Bob and Dorene retired to Salt Lake City, where he passed away peacefully on June 29, 2025.
Bob was admired for his colorful storytelling and his uniquely determined way of looking at the world. Never one short of a strong opinion, Bob has passed on some of his best traits to a legacy of 9 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. He will be remembered fondly by these grandchildren and great-grandchildren as Grandpa Bob.
He is survived by daughter Shereen (Steve Berger), and sons, Bryan and David. Bob was predeceased by his wife Dorene in 2013 and son Norman Dean in 2012.
A private memorial service will be held later in the summer and Bob will be interred at Larkin Sunset Lawn Cemetery in Salt Lake City.
Thinking of Bob today on his birthday, when we would usually revisit his favorites--black walnut ice cream, raspberries, and succotash. He was surrounded by photos of Dorene and loved to recall how they met in high school, and their life together in Chicago. He spoke frankly of the painful parts of life and they were very real. Still, Bob always had a place in his heart for beauty--captured as a photographer in his earlier years, later shared in text links to favorite instrument music, and always in his pride in Dorene and their posterity. Sending love to his family...may the beautiful parts live on.