In Celebration of Robert John Drabek

By Patricia Peng

5/7/2022

I still remember the day I started my career as Chinese computational linguist at Language Analysis, LAS, in 1994.  I was born and raised in Taiwan, studied Linguistics at graduate school and worked as a computer programmer for over a decade at the time. Yet, I don't have the foggiest idea what Chinese computational linguist was.  Needless to say, I was very nervous with the new page of my life.  I was introduced to a dozen friendly, welcoming employees, half linguists, half programmers.  Then there’s Robert, who was neither warm nor fuzzy.  Robert was the lead for the engineering part of the company.  He was soft spoken, had an Einstein-style brainy look, and had very words to say. To my big surprise, when lunchtime rolled in, Robert stood outside my office and asked if I wanted to join him and Tom for lunch.  From that day till the day Robert left the company, we became lunch buddies and later on, our private lunch “club” attracted some other new members and grew increasingly.  However, those new members came and went.  Robert, Tom, and I continued our daily ritual until they both left the company.  

Through hundreds of lunches together, Robert's invisible wall slowly began to crumble and I was then allowed in to see the side of Robert that most people don't see.   Robert was a typical person that we Chinese called "面恶心善" - tough appearance with tender heart.  Robert was many things in his life.  But first and foremost, he was Elliott's proud dad and Yan's loving husband.  I remember one time I asked Robert why he chose to work for a dinky linguistic company while he could work for any company of his choice.  His answer couldn't be more surprising.  He said he wanted to get to know Elliott more and what Elliott does as a linguist.  He would talk about raising Elliott as a single parent - the joy, the heartaches and their special bond.  At the end of such conversations, I could always see Robert's face lit up with indescribable pride.  Later when Elliott joined LAS briefly, I would watch the father-son duo in action and laugh at their occasional quibbles.  I remember one time Robert complained about Elliott's lack of "social skills", and Elliott reacted "See who's talking?" 

I’m a fruit lover.  Naturally, I became the volunteer of fruit provider of our lunch club. I would carefully hand-pick, wash, and de-branch grapes and share with all guys.  While Robert always enjoyed the grapes, he once “complained” about the grape skin and said, “Yan always peeled them for me … 🤦🏻‍♀️.  Robert loved talking about his star student - Yan, the typical smart and hard-working, ahem, Chinese student. He loved bragging about Yan’s cooking too, and was totally happy being dragged to the car races that Yan enjoyed so much.  Robert would invite my family for dinners and showcase Yan’s culinary skills. He would tell Yan to make something special for my two picky eater daughters.  As it turned out, Yan’s homemade Chinese pancakes was always the talk of the night on our trip home. Up to this day, Chinese pancakes are still the top ranked food for my daughters.

One thing that touched me the most was how much he had appreciated Yan when he was going through the cancer treatment ordeals. “I cannot be prouder of Yan, the way she handled doctors, work, transportation and me”, Robert would say.  

Robert loved animals.  Everybody knows how much he loved his canine sons/daughters, especially Hensley, but rarely would people know how tender he was with creatures (not so much humans) big and small.  On nice days, we would find a picnic table and eat outside.  Occasionally, we would attract little crawling/flying uninvited guests to our table.  I would ask one of the guys to “take them out”.  Robert always gently carried them away from me, and claimed “they were here first” 🤦🏻‍♀️.   

Aside from eating, we also had some memorable adventures together.  In the back of the CIT (Center for Innovative Technology) building where LAS was, we discovered a little unoccupied rundown hut that Tom insisted on exploring.  Usually, Tom and Robert would go inside to explore the deserted hut while I would refuse to go in and stay outside with Richard to guard the door (I swear it was a hideout for fugitives). 

Robert was very fond of my daughters, especially my younger one, Stephanie.  Stephanie was about 10, 11 at the time.  I would pick her up from school in the afternoon and brought her to LAS with me.  Sometimes, our bosses Len and Jack would do the same and brought their kids to work. Individually, they were all nice kids, but together they were a riot.  Robert had some little fun toys that all nerdy guys loved displayed on his desk.  The kids loved playing with them too.  Sometimes it became too much, Robert would say "only Stephanie could play".   When Robert left the company, he gave those toys to Stephanie to keep.  

Robert left the company in 1999 but our tie remained even long after they moved to the Boston area.  We became each other's confidant as well as cheerleader as we both entered the next stage of our lives.  The last time we saw each other was probably 2017 when Robert and Yan drove down to Florida.  After a happy yet brief reunion, Robert and Yan had to get back on the road to continue their journey.  At the doorway, Robert turned around and said, "You still are the same person as I first knew you." Robert probably never realized that was one of the highest compliments I have heard in a long time.