Robert “Bob” Heipley, a longtime resident of Corona, recently celebrated his 100th birthday, with about 60 family members and friends gathering at an open house at his daughter Holly Herring’s home in Corona.

He was born Jan. 21, 1925, in Columbus, Ohio, and served in the U.S. Navy as a radioman second class in World War II and the Korean War. He knows Morse code “inside and out,” according to an email from his daughter Robin Whiteside of Illinois.
He was working as a claims examiner in an unemployment office when he first saw his future wife, Hazel “Vickie” Fraley. When she walked into the office, he immediately told a coworker that he was going to marry her, according to his daughter Robin.
He married her in 1952 in Dayton, Ohio, and their marriage lasted more than six decades, until she died in 2017.
Heipley worked 36 years for DynCorp, as an administrative department manager and contract administrator. The family was living in New Mexico when a job transfer brought them to Corona in 1975.
In addition to daughters Holly Herring and Robin Whiteside, he has a son, Robert Heipley II of Lake Elsinore. He also has nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Among those who attended the celebration were Heipley’s former pastor, Julio Romano, and his wife, Barbara, now of Tennessee; grandson Jordan Herring, who traveled from Thailand; and members of daughter Robin Whiteside’s family, coming from Chicago.
Heipley is an avid reader and loves sports, especially Ohio State University football, and his “man cave” is decorated with Ohio State items, according to his daughter Robin, who wrote that “His biggest gift was Ohio State winning the national championship!”
He is known for his quick wit and fantastic sense of humor, according to Robin, who credits his long life to his faith in God, loving family and the fact that he still exercises.