Robert Aalbu Fliegel died on December 17, 2025, at age 85 in Edina, MN.

Bob was a graduate of Blake School (1957) in Hopkins, MN, Carleton College (1961), where he was student body president, and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (1989).

He was a regular Navy officer in the surface line from 1962 to 1983, having served aboard five destroyers and ashore at the Pentagon and in the Bahamas and Iceland.  His awards included the Defense Meritorious Service medal, Meritorious Service medal, Navy Commendation medal with one star, Navy Achievement medal, Navy Unit Commendation ribbon, Meritorious Unit Commendation ribbon, Navy "E" ribbon, National Defense Service medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary medal, Vietnam Service medal with two stars, Korean Defense Service medal, and Republic of Vietnam Campaign medal.

Following his naval career, Bob worked as an administrative officer for the National Park Service in St. Augustine, managing the budget, personnel, payroll, and public relations for the oldest city's two national monuments, Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas, from 1992 to 2000.

He was the only son of Ernie and Aileene Fliegel of Minneapolis.  Father Ernie was a prize fighter in the 1920s and co-proprietor of The 620 Club ("Where Turkey is King") on Minneapolis's Hennepin Avenue from 1934 to 1967.  His mother, Aileene, appeared on the vaudeville stage in the 1920s and early 1930s with her three sisters, who were billed on the Orpheum circuit as The Four Albee Sisters.  She and her youngest sister, Harriet, were featured in Ripley's Believe It Or Not in 1931, Aileene for winning a beauty contest and a funny face contest on the same day, Harriet for sinking fourteen consecutive spot shots during a pool demonstration in Doyle's Billiard Parlor, NYC.

Bob was predeceased by his wife, Nena Thames Whittemore in 1993.  He enjoyed genealogy, computer technology, high school and college class reunion planning, free lance writing, alpine skiing, chatting with Cosmo, his African Gray parrot, and walking his rescue dog, Cammy.  He is survived by his son, Troy (and partner Stephanie), of Minnesota, and stepson Alex Whittemore of Massachusetts.