Riverview Police - Ret. Lt. Robert "Bob" Queen

Robert Earl Queen, 86, of Wyandotte, died peacefully at home on September 1, 2023. The son of Earl and Pearl (Gilliam) Queen, he was born in McCaysville, Georgia, on April 18, 1937, and moved with his family to Michigan when he was nine years old. A 1954 graduate of A.E. Smith High School (now Riverview High), Bob was a gifted athlete who played football, baseball, and basketball for Central Michigan University before signing to pitch a season with the minor-league Philadelphia Phillies. After two years in the U.S. Marine Corps, he returned to Michigan, where he raised three sons and served as a Riverview police officer for 28 years, retiring as a lieutenant in 1987.

Supremely confident, resolute, and relentless, Bob was a born leader. He was President of the Seaway Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #154 for several years, Chairman of the City of Riverview Retirement Board of Trustees, and Field Commander for the Downriver Mutual Aid Task Force. But his three sons were the center of his existence. He taught them to hit, coached their little league teams, and served as President of the Riverview Football and Baseball Associations for many years. With a small band of volunteers and donated materials, he led the effort to install the city’s first lighted diamond and homerun fence at Longsdorf and Krause Streets. Though underappreciated for giving generations of kids the thrill of playing “under the lights,” it was worth it to him to watch his son become the first to hit the ball over the fence.

Upon retiring, Bob moved to Boyne City, building the house he would occupy for 25 years on the shore of Lake Charlevoix, his own heaven on Earth. In 2013, he moved to a house in Wyandotte, where he could board his boat from his backyard and cruise the river for walleye. Both ferocious and a big softie, he was as easily moved to tears as he was to anger, fiercely loyal to his friends and deeply, endlessly loving to his family, whom he adored.

Beloved husband of Brenda (Lovasz). Loving father of Kelly, Patrick, and Michael (Clarice), and stepfather of Robert Lovasz (Amy). Proud grandfather of Dylan Queen (Steffany), Zachary Varela, Derek Varela (Leslie), Myles Lovasz, and Madison Lovasz. Brother of the late Eva Hicks, Joseph Queen (Brenda), the late Dorotea Richardson, Diralda Santilli, Karen Watt, and Brian Queen (Toni).

Visitation for Robert will take place on Wednesday, September 6, 2023 from 12:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Trenton Chapel of The Martenson Family of Funeral Homes located at 3200 West Rd., 48183. There will be a military honor guard service beginning at 6:30 p.m. that evening at the funeral home, followed by the funeral service beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Please visit Robert's online guestbook to share memories and leave condolences for his family.