DEER ISLE – Robert E. Haskell, 77, died Feb. 10, 2012, at home after a yearlong battle with a type of leukemia known as AML. He was born March 8, 1934, in Berlin, N.H., the second son of Benjamin Stacy and Lydia Gilbert Haskell.
Bob graduated from Berlin High School and Bentley School of Accounting, Boston. He joined his brother working at Chase Manhattan Bank, New York City. He entered the U.S. Army in 1956, qualified as a clarinetist, and served in the 434th Army Band, Fort Gordon, Ga., and later the 8th Army Band, Seoul, Korea. Upon being discharged in 1958, he returned to Chase Bank. He went back to Korea the following year to marry Shin Soon Ok, who joined him six months later. A few years after, they moved to Long Island, where they lost their first-born son Daniel, at age 3 1/2, to an automobile accident near their home. To help heal from this tragedy, they moved back to the City, this time to Staten Island, with their two daughters. Chase Bank then assigned Bob to a post in Rio de Janeiro, helping set up computer centers there and in Sao Paulo, a four-year tour with his growing
family which, shortly after arriving in Rio, now included a third daughter. Upon returning to the U.S., again living on Long Island, Bob became weary of the commuting life and began looking for an opportunity to move to Maine. That opportunity materialized in 1974 and they moved into his house on Deer Isle. Concerned about how his children of mixed parentage would be accepted at school, the parents’ fears soon disappeared when Susanne came home one day to announce she had been elected president of her class. Bob was extremely proud of the academic accomplishments of all their children, each of whom went on from high school in Deer Isle to earn degrees at fine universities. Bob worked at a number of jobs on the Island, served for a time on the school board, as second selectman in Deer Isle for at least 15 years, as treasurer of the local power company for six years, and with his wife, operated a few rental properties. But Bob’s lifelong passion was amateur music. Starting with the dance band he led in high school, to the Dixieland group he managed in Seoul, Korea – “Haskell’s Rascals” – to the many groups he joined in once he moved to Maine: The Bright Moments Jazz Band, The Bayside Stompers, the Prevailing Winds Sax Quartet, and several municipal bands in the area, including, at various times, Ellsworth Band, Castine Band, Bangor Band, Brewer Hometown Band, and the one he loved most dearly, the Deer Isle Fourth of July Band. Bob could also be found in Deer Isle and Sunset churches, playing Mozart or Favre on his clarinet at the invitation of Professor Vernon Gotwals. In the late 1980s he joined Blue Hill Big Band and, after a break-up, reorganized it under his own name. For more than 20 years the Bob Haskell Big Band entertained at dances, weddings, and in general carried forward the sounds of the 1930s and 1940s. One of the band’s last times together was to celebrate Bob’s 75th birthday in 2009. Bob was proud to have been born just two years after the death of his hero, John Philip Souza, and was grateful that the time he spent in New York City allowed him to hear in person such jazz giants as Louis Armstrong, Red Nichols and Wilbur de Paris among others.
Surviving are his beloved and devoted wife of 52 years, Soon O. Haskell; daughters, Dr. Susanne Haskell of Newton, Mass., Carol Cavanaugh and husband, Tim, of Merrimac, Mass., and their children, Andrew, Michael and Julia, and Catherine Haskell and husband, Bob Byers, of Andover, Mass., and their children, Leo, Nate and Tess. Also surviving is his sister, Jean Krauklin of Cary, N.C.; as well as many nieces and nephews. Predeceasing Bob were his son, Daniel; his sister, Ruth Young of Cambridge, Mass.; and his brother, David Haskell of Deer Isle.
A celebration of Bob’s life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Island Nursing Home, Deer Isle; or Deer Isle Stonington Historical Society. Arrangements by Bragdon-Kelley Funeral Homes, Stonington.