Kingwood, TX – Robert Eugene "Gene" Mendonsa, 93, died Saturday, April 1, 2023 at Kingwood Memory Care and Assisted Living following a brief illness.

He leaves his daughter, Leslie Baisden (Barry); his son, Robert Eugene Mendonsa, Jr. (Julie); his son, Mark Mendonsa; his son, David Mendonsa (Gretchen); his daughter SunHee Robinson (Brandon); thirteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Born in Defuniak Springs, FL and raised in Plant City, FL, Gene was the middle son of three boys born to Arthur A. and Mamie G. Mendonsa.  After graduating from Plant City High School in 1947, he attended college at the University of Florida in Gainesville before enlisting with the US Navy in the early 1950s, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant and became a naval aviator, flying a reconnaissance plane.

After completing his naval service, Gene joined the Boy Scouts of America, a job he held for almost 25 years. During his time with the BSA, he met and married Sheila Fay Bremer in Greensboro, NC in July 1963. Thereafter, they settled in Greensboro and had Leslie ('65) and Robert, Jr. "Bob" ('66). In 1969, Gene took a position with the Far East Council of the Boy Scouts of America and moved his family to Okinawa, Japan for the next 4 years. During this time, he and Sheila adopted Mark (4), David (3), and SunHee (18 mos.) from Seoul, South Korea.

In 1973, Gene moved his family to Tyler, TX where he took up a position as an Executive with the East Texas Council of the BSA. He retired from the Boy Scouts in 1980 and took a position with Flower's Baking Company in Tyler. In 1993, he retired altogether at age 64 in order to move back to Plant City, FL to take care of his ailing mother Mamie, who died in 1994. Gene spent the next 23 years in Plant City, serving his local community and church, teaching tennis to youth, assisting with grassroots political campaigns, and making friends with hundreds of new people.

As his health began to decline, Gene moved to Kingwood, TX to be closer to his eldest daughter Leslie in 2017. He lived out the next 6 years vibrantly and joyfully, never missing an opportunity to love and bless anyone within his gradually waning reach.

Throughout his 93 years, Gene was known as a gentle and kind man, ready to laugh, full of wisdom and patience, and unconditionally loving of his family and friends. We who lived under that love and were steeped in it have been immeasurably changed by the decades we were blessed to have been in his presence. Dad was a joy to have lived with. But more important than all these things, Dad knew God and he had given his life to Jesus Christ at a very young age. His testimony and his life bore the signs of that faith, and it is because of the hope we all share in the resurrection of Christ that we can mourn his passing without being overcome. Dad, we love you and we will see you again as soon as soon shall be.

A private family celebration of life is being planned for a later date.  Memorials may be made to Naomi's Village Children's Home in Kenya.  (Naomisvillage.org)