Captain Robert Joe Westberg, Civil Engineer Corps, United States Navy (Retired)
March 22nd 1931 - April 25th 2025
Robert Joe Westberg, 94, of Trinidad, California, went to be with his Lord and Savior on Friday, April 25th at Ventura, California.
He was born on March 22nd, 1931, in Chico, California, to Alf Ivan Westberg of Kalmar, Sweden, and Ethyl Uhl Westberg of Chico. Bob grew up in Humboldt County, California, living mostly in the coastal company lumber town of Samoa, where his father worked. He became an Eagle Scout and graduated from Eureka High School. After two years at Humboldt State University, he attended the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, graduating with distinction, ranking 14th in his class, and was commissioned an Ensign in the Navy.
While at Humboldt State, before he went to the Naval Academy, he met Marilyn Louise Trump. They waited on each other for the four years he was at Annapolis, and after graduation, married at her home church, Arcata United Methodist.
His first tour was Navigator and Anti-Submarine Warfare Officer on the USS Porterfield (DD-682), deploying to the western Pacific. He was then accepted into the Navy Civil Engineer Corps, with assignments at Hunter’s Point Naval Shipyard in San Francisco, California; on the island of Okinawa, and at the Headquarters of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command outside Washington, DC. He was Executive Officer of the Civil Engineer Corps Officers School in Port Hueneme, California, and then in 1968, during the Tet Offensive, he was promoted early to Commander and immediately deployed as Commanding Officer of the 1,000 men of Mobile Construction Battalion Eight, first to to Hue and then Danang, Republic of Vietnam.
He then served four consecutive leadership tours in California: as head of construction for the Western Division of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command in San Bruno; Executive Officer of the Public Works Center in Oakland; Public Works Officer for the nuclear Naval Shipyard at Mare Island, and his final assignment, command of the Navy’s Public Works Center in San Diego.
He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York and a Master’s Degree and work towards a PhD in nuclear blast resistant design at the University of Illinois at Champaign. He attended the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia, and was a registered professional engineer in Washington, DC and California. He received a Legion of Merit with combat V and gold star, and numerous other Naval awards and recognition.
Upon retirement from the Navy, they moved home to Humboldt County, where he built their family home in Trinidad, among the redwoods and overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He joined Winzler and Kelly Engineers, overseeing many industrial construction projects in Humboldt and Santa Rosa Counties, including the Woodley Island Marina and Fairhaven Power Plant.
He was a member of Arcata Rotary and Navy League of Humboldt Bay, serving as president of both. They were active members of the Arcata United Methodist Church and later the Wesleyan Church of the Redwoods in McKinleyville, where he served on the finance committee. They regularly attended reunions for the USS Porterfield and Mobile Construction Battalion Eight, his last at age 90.
In 2016, they moved to Ventura, California, to be closer to family, joining Community Presbyterian Church. The family is grateful to the caring staff at the Ventura Townehouse, his doctors and nurses, and Assisted Home Hospice in his final days, and to their churches for spiritual support.
Bob enjoyed fishing, camping, woodworking, ballroom dancing, and most of all, his six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. He is survived by them and his wife of seventy years, Marilyn, and his sons Robert Jr. and wife Patricia Sullivan Westberg, of Ventura, David and wife Maria Westberg of Springfield, Virginia, and Donald Westberg of Everett, Washington. He is predeceased by his parents, and his brother Jim and his sisters Eula Westberg Farnham and Doris Westberg Jensen and their spouses.
A memorial service will be held at 1 PM on June 7th, 2025, at Community Presbyterian Church of Ventura. Interment will be at a later date at the Ocean View Cemetery in Eureka. Arrangements are under the direction of JOSEPH P. REARDON FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION SERVICE, 757 E. Main Street, Ventura.