Robert Michael Ducey

Robert Michael Ducey                                                           August 31, 1926-June 16, 2023

Bob was born in his grandparents’ hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and grew up in Chicago, Illinois, where he attended Catholic school, along with his six siblings. Bob graduated from Loyola Academy in 1944, was accepted in the Navy V-12 program and sent to Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. He graduated in 1947 and commissioned as Ensign, USN.  Bob did sea duty on a Navy hydrographic survey ship, charting the waters off Mexico and Labrador. From there he was transferred to Russian Language School in Washington, D.C., and assigned to the Naval Security Group.

When the Korean War began, he was sent to the Naval Radio Station in Wahiwa, Hawaii, where he met and married Patricia Perkins. He left active duty in the Navy in 1951 and went to work for the Illinois Bell Telephone Company in Chicago. He retired from the Navy after 20 years of satisfactory service.

In 1963, Bob was transferred as an engineer to AT&T in New York City, where he was instrumental in developing the 12 button Touch-Tone telephone. He returned to Illinois Bell in 1966 as a District Engineering Manager.

Bob was divorced in 1974 after raising five children: Christopher, Anne, Patrick, Emily and Jonathan. He met Marilou McCambridge through his youngest sibling, Madeleine, a school friend of Marilou’s. Bob and Marilou were married in 1978, and Bob adopted her daughter, Molly.

When the Bell System was broken up, Bob was recruited by the FCC to be Director of the Midwest Region of the National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA), while continuing as an employee of Illinois Bell. Bob retired from Illinois Bell in 1985 and from NECA in 1988 as Senior Director.

After Bob retired from the telephone business, he and Marilou moved to Marco Island, Florida, where he became active in the Coast Guard Auxiliary. He qualified as a Master Instructor and as a Coxswain, conducting night search-and-rescue operations often after midnight, as well as manning the Coast Guard Auxiliary radio station on weekends.

Bob served as Eucharistic Minister at San Marco Catholic Church on Marco Island and delivered Meals on Wheels weekly for 25 years with Marilou and the St. Vincent DePaul Society in Naples. He continued his volunteer work at St. William Catholic Church after moving to Naples, including serving at weekday Mass. He and Marilou served the assisted living members of The Carlisle Naples, giving a Sunday Eucharistic prayer service for many years.

In 2015 Bob and Marilou moved to Vicar’s Landing Continuing Care Retirement Community in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, close to their daughter, Molly.

Bob is survived by his loving wife of 44 years, Marilou, his six children, 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.  

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 2:00p.m., Monday, June 26, 2023, at Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church with Father Eric Stelzer as Celebrant.

He will be inurned at the Jacksonville National Cemetery.