2006
Robert Emerson Ankers Jr., 87, an electrical engineer and retired manager of the Washington office of Technology for
Communications International, a California-based manufacturer of antenna systems, died Dec. 30 at High Point Regional
Hospital in North Carolina. He had pneumonia.
Mr. Ankers was born in Richmond and raised in Falls Church. He was a 1937 graduate of McKinley Technical High School in
Washington.
He later was an electrical engineering graduate of North Carolina State University and spent many years as a staff engineer at
Deco Electronics in Leesburg.
He served in the Navy on PT boats in the South Pacific during World War II. He moved to High Point from McLean about five
years ago.
He was a former board member of Westover Baptist Church in Arlington County, where he once taught Sunday school.
His other memberships included the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Optimist Club of Arlington, the Masons,
the Alexandria chapter of the Civil War Round Table and the Model A Ford Club of America.
He also was a trustee emeritus of Fork Union Military Academy in Virginia. His father was a graduate of the school.
Mr. Ankers's wife of 54 years, Betty Lathem Ankers, died in 1998.
Survivors include his wife, Nelda Learnard Ankers of Raleigh, N.C.; a daughter from his first marriage, Elizabeth Tuttle of High
Point; a brother, Marvin Ankers of Harrisonburg, Va.; a sister, Margaret Miller of Ashland, Va.; and three grandsons.