Robert Cate Obituary

Cate
ROBERT CATE
1934 - 2019
For Bob Cate, a long life of learning, laughter and love for the arts drew to a close on September 14 in Houston, TX after a brief illness. He was 85.
Robert Cate was born in Tennessee in 1934. His family moved to Monterrey, Mexico in 1948 where Bob went to Spanish-speaking middle and high schools.
It was at Rice University that Bob met his future wife, Margaret VanMelle. Majoring in physics, Bob continued at Rice for a masters degree in nuclear physics. He moved to the University of Texas at Austin for a PhD in physics as well as doing research at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.
While pursuing postdoctoral work at the University of East Anglia in England, Bob became a father. Two years later, when the mysteries of the "Terrible Twos" surpassed those of subatomic particles, Bob switched to studying psychology, later earning another doctorate.
The Cate family moved to Colorado Springs in 1977, where Bob worked as a clinical psychologist.
Upon retirement, Bob cared for Margaret, who passed away in 2011. Fortunately, he spent the last eight years enjoying the arts and lively conversation with Cindy Donovan.
Bob's breadth of intelligence and love of learning surfaced early: Bob entered eighth grade at a Spanish-speaking middle school in Mexico. Six months before, he spoke no Spanish. At the end of each year, the school awarded medals for academic excellence in 15 different subjects. In his ninth-grade class, Bob won 14 medals. They didn't give him the last medal out of fairness - it was for English.
Bob is survived by his daughter, Holly, and his brother Richard and his wife Alta.
Donations in Bob's name can be made to the Curiosity Unlimited organization, on whose board Bob served:
http://tinyurl.com/give4bob