Robert S. Mello

On April 17, 2026 Robert “Bob” S. Mello passed away at University of Maryland Shock Trauma. An immigrant to Maryland, Bob was a family man and technology professional, but what really defined him was his life-long pursuit of offbeat hobbies. Bob was born in Tiverton, RI. His extended Portuguese-American family was close, with grandparents living right next door. After his confirmation, much to his family’s chagrin, he gave up his ancestral middle name of Cabral and adopted the name “Stephen” after Saint Stephen. In his teens, while attending Durfee High, Bob started racing pigeons. He joined a local club and trained his birds to fly home from hundreds of miles away. His mother tolerated the hobby on the condition he keep the birds away from the house. As a young man, Bob followed his mother into apparel manufacturing. Not knowing anything different, his career would have been spent at a factory. However, one supervisor saw his ability and encouraged him to continue his education. Bob took classes at the University of Rhode Island and then took a leap of faith and moved to the big city of Boston to study electrical engineering at Franklin Cumming Tech. In 1965, he took a job at Western Electric and moved to Baltimore, MD. Over his 35-year career, the company transformed into AT&T via the Bell break-up and then into Lucent Technologies, where Bob concluded his career leading a sales team. Through a mutual friend, Bob met Sharon Filbert, fourth-generation Baltimorean. Bob and Sharon married on September 28, 1968. Over 57 years of marriage, Bob and Sharon raised three sons and lived in Joppatowne, Cockeysville, Ellicott City and finally Ocean City. Bob served as an officer in the National Guard during the Vietnam War. By the mid-1970s, Baltimore charm worked its magic and Bob switched his allegiance from the Boston sports teams to the Orioles and Colts/Ravens. Match-ups would inevitably involve good-natured phone calls filled with banter between Bob and his friends and family in New England. On the side, however, he pursued his hobbies. His first Baltimore endeavor was as a distributor of automobile parts. Then he started a swimming pool service company called The Pool Doctor. After selling the company, he moved onto raising freshwater fish and filled the family home’s basement with fish tanks of all sizes. Up next was showing Budgerigars “Parakeets.” Bob converted half the garage into an aviary. Neighborhood kids would stand on their tiptoes to peer through the window into the garage to see Bob’s one hundred (100) birds, some of which generated a national champion. After selling his birds, Bob took up stained glass and created ornaments. A visit to a furniture store “This End Up” inspired Bob to say “I can do better.” He built tables, chairs and coat racks. His furniture is still used to this day to decorate his family’s homes. Ensuing hobbies included coin collecting, bonsai trees and a comic book/sports memorabilia store in Clarksville called “Heroes Den.” As Bob was still working full-time, Heroes Den would be open infrequently (as time allowed). His family still uses the expression “Heroes Den Hours” as anything that’s open when convenient. When he closed the retail shop, Bob became an early adopter of eBay and moved his business online. Bob didn’t do everything on his own. He had partners. One was an adopted Australian Shepherd Dog, Foster. When roaming nearby softball fields, Foster would inevitably return from the underbrush with a ball. Bob would clean the balls and sell them on E-Bay back to the teams. His hobbies varied and kept him engaged. However, Bob would drop them in an instant to help his family whether with car trouble, sickness or a simple phone call and good advice. Bob is survived by his wife, Sharon; children Rob, Scott and Sean; and grandchildren Ava, Ryan, Remy and Olivia. Bob fought hearing loss, heart disease and dementia. Despite the dementia he could still amazingly recall the fine details of pigeon racing from his youth. A viewing will be held on Friday May 1 at Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home in Towson. The burial will occur on Saturday May 2 at Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Alzheimer's Association.

Robert S. Mello

July 12, 1942 - April 17, 2026