Robert “Bob” Cass, who served in the trenches of the Korean War before teaching history and social studies to the students of Donelson, Tenn., for three decades, passed away on October 6, 2024. He was 92.
Robert Wallace Cass was born in 1931 in Nashville to John Robert Cass, a barber, and the former Agnes Moore, who worked in a hosiery mill; beloved little brother Charlie followed six years later.
From his boyhood, Bob loved reading (superhero comics were an early favorite) and playing competitive games – he was a serious threat at pool, ping pong, horseshoes, bowling, and tennis, and later bought a boat and added fishing and waterskiing to his hobbies. He worked from the age of 15, including as a drugstore soda jerk and developed a lifetime love of learning and teaching.
During the Korean War, Bob served in the Army on the front lines, sleeping in trenches, walking patrols, and becoming a radio operator at headquarters responsible for maintaining communications under the barrage of artillery fire. His service earned him the Combat Infantry Badge and the opportunity to attend college through the G.I. Bill.
Bob enrolled in Middle Tennessee State College in Murfreesboro for a teaching degree. During bacteriology lab, he was partnered with a young woman who had romantic designs on another student. Would Bob mind swapping lab partners? He agreed, and met his new partner – Avalene Ellis of Nashville, in the last semester of her senior year. Their former lab partners began dating and married, and so did Bob and Avie.
Both became teachers in the Nashville area. Bob taught history at Donelson High School and then social studies after the school transitioned to Donelson Junior High. Students benefited from his dry humor and enthusiasm for history, government, and politics (although some took advantage of his expansiveness by diverting Mr. Cass into long stories in hopes he would run out of time to assign homework).
Together the couple enjoyed competing in sports car events and began a lifetime of travel, including visiting national parks from Maine to California with their two daughters and enjoying ocean cruises in later years.
Bob was a devoted father to Laura and Connie, honing his photography skills on countless family trips in the tent-camper and learning to saddle and ride horses and tow a horse trailer so his girls could pursue their dreams of owning and showing horses.
Bob taught for 30 years before retiring in 1987. It wasn’t unusual for him to walk into class in the fall to find the son or daughter of a former student from years ago. Around his Hermitage Hills neighborhood, he was regularly greeted at the grocery or drugstore by shouts of “Mr. Cass” and was gratified to learn some of his students had become doctors, lawyers, a judge, and even fellow teachers.
Bob had a lifelong passion for all automotives and their inner workings, including his 1959 MG sports car given up for a family sedan, a 2006 Mini Cooper for retirement road trips, and the 2019 F-150 pickup that came along when he moved to Portland, Tenn., to live near his daughter Laura.
He is survived by his wife, Avalene E. Cass; daughters Laura (Alton) George of Portland and Connie (Jim) O’Connell of Alexandria, Va.; grandsons Robert and William O’Connell of Alexandria; sister-in-law Lanora Cass; nephew Chuck Cass; and niece Dawn Reddy. He was predeceased by parents J.R. and Agnes Cass and his brother Charles.
Services will be announced later. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/nashville-tn
Donations to the Wounded Warrior Project https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/ or Middle Tennessee State University https://development.mtsu.edu/foundation.
For more obituaries visit https://davidsoncountysource.com/obituaries/
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