Robert Allen Gouker
2006
Robert Allen Gouker, 75, a former geodesist with the Defense Mapping Agency, died Jan. 9 at Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, Calif., of complications following heart surgery. A longtime resident of Damascus, he had lived in Rancho Murieta, Calif., since 1995.
Mr. Gouker was born in Frederick and graduated from  St. John's College High School in the District in 1948. He enlisted in the Army in 1950 and worked in the Logistics and Supply Command during the Korean War. After a brief period with the Army Map Service as a topographic draftsman, he received a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Syracuse University in 1960.
After graduation, he returned to the Washington area to take a position with the Army Map Service (now the Defense Mapping Agency, a unit of the Army Corps of Engineers). As a geodesist, he developed tools, techniques and measurements for the physical attributes of the Earth's surface.
His work took him all over the world, from Iceland and Greenland to Ethiopia and Egypt, as he and his colleagues mapped the Earth, settled boundary disputes and added to the Defense Department's store of maps. His career spanned a period of explosive growth in technology, beginning with star chart triangulation and ending in 1989 with satellite imagery and the dawning of the Internet.
Mr. Gouker was a former scoutmaster for Troop 445 in Damascus and spent his retirement years gardening and golfing.
His first wife, Josephine Gouker, died in 1992.
Survivors include his wife of 12 years, Florence Gouker of Rancho Murieta; three children from his first marriage, Toby Gouker of Ellicott City, Sheila Bell of Gaithersburg and Maura Swart of Ijamsville; seven stepchildren, James Gouker, Janet Back, Bill Gouker, Joanne Brandt, Bobby Gouker and Debra Warady, all of Rancho Murieta, and Michael Gouker of Melbourne, Fla.; four brothers, Donald Gouker of Frederick, Dick Gouker of Baltimore, William Gouker Jr. of Laurel and Paul Gouker of Frederick; a sister, Alice Somervell of Silver Spring; 28 grandchildren; and 18 great-grandchildren.