Roberta "Bobbie" Lynn Oetman-Fleck

FLECK — Roberta “Bobbie” Kyte Oetman Fleck was born in 1950 in Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada, the fourth of five children. She married Duwayne Charles Oetman and they served as missionaries in a remote Colombian village. After returning to the U.S., they had three children, Greg, Gerald and Angela; and adopted a fourth, Jana. Bobbie and Duwayne invested everything into their children, and the home they built together.

Duwayne passed away in 1990 after a battle with brain cancer. Bobbie earned a master’s degree in special education from Walla Walla University, and went on to create a highly successful curriculum, now used nationwide. Bobbie later married Ron Fleck.

In January 2014, doctors diagnosed her with pancreatic cancer. Bobbie’s will to live and her faith in God kept her going for almost seven months. She passed away on July 3, 2014.

She was survived by her husband, Ron; her sons, Greg and Gerald; her daughters, Angela and Jana; and her grandchildren, Priya, Owen, Evan, Robert and Grace; her siblings Beverly, Barbara, Heather and Robert; by hundreds of adoring students and dozens more who called her “mum.”

Bobbie was buried in Michigan, next to her beloved first husband, Duwayne.

Her family misses her terribly, but looks forward to being reunited with her on that day.