Robert Eldon Racine

The Livestream Link will be available HERE on the day of the service and will go live approximately 5 minutes before the event.

BOB RACINE (9 May 1944 - 13 July 2026)

 Our Dad, Robert E. (Bob) Racine was a Saskatoon boy through and through. He loved this city, its people and its spirit. Dad attended Brunskill School, playing hockey and delivering meat for the neighborhood grocer on his bicycle. He spent happy summers on the family farm at Radisson with his cousins and later working as a counselor at Camp Wakonda. Dad went to City Park Collegiate where he was an excellent and popular student who was on the basketball and football teams, served on student council, and hammed it up on stage at Variety Night. Dad attended the University of Saskatchewan, then transferred to the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Alberta and graduated in 1967. He returned to Saskatoon and practiced dentistry here until his retirement in 1998.

 Dad was an excellent dentist on a technical level and an unusually caring and attentive professional. We remember the scraps of yellow newsprint with phone numbers that he would bring home so he could check on that day's surgery patients. Dad was President of the Saskatoon Dental Society, a part-time instructor at the U of S's Faculty of Dentistry when it opened, a lifetime member of the Saskatchewan College of Dental Surgeons and the Canadian Dental Society, for a time serving as chair of their regional Professional Division. Dad took a special interest in sports-related dental injuries. He was the team dentist for the Saskatoon Blades, the Saskatoon Hilltops, and the U of S Huskies football, hockey and basketball teams, and for national events held in Saskatoon like the World Junior Hockey Tournament and the Canada Summer Games. He even did emergency work for Johnny Cash after a concert. Dad was Dr Bob, the painless dentist, to everyone he met.

 Bob met Barbara McLeod at City Park Collegiate where they started dating in grade ten. It was true love and a partnership right from the start. They graduated together as Senior Watch and Senior Pin, married in 1965, and had three daughters Karen, Monica (Nicki), and Janet by the time they were twenty-six. Bob's family was the joy of his life. He changed diapers, took us on Saturdays to visit Wickenden's hardware store, and had many Chinese food dinners at the Wah Qua and The Vault. Dad attended every school assembly, dance recital, art show, and graduation proudly. He learned how to plié and pirouette during parents' day in ballet class. Our family spent summers at Waskesiu and took memorable trips to Banff, Jasper, Florida, California and Hawaii. Mom and Dad had an active social life. They seemed so glamorous going to Kinsmen events on the weekend, dancing the jitterbug, having pool parties, and throwing their annual Electric Dentist racquetball tournament with their good friends Doug and Candy Dibb. All our Christmas Eves were spent with Denny, Verna, Christie and Trevor Carr. We made piñatas and went bowling on New Year's Eves. Mom and Dad enjoyed many winters golfing in Palm Springs and spending lots of time with their much-adored grandsons, Sam and Tommy. One of the greatest gifts Dad gave us was the love and devotion he had for our Mom. They were together for sixty-three years and showed us in word and deed what lifelong love and commitment to family looks like.

 It was important to Dad to be a good community citizen. He was a proud member of the Kinsmen and K-40 clubs, serving on various executive positions and he won the National Outstanding President Award in 1978. He was involved in the planning and creation of the Kinsmen Rehabilitation Centre, the Kinsmen Park Children's Play Village, and chaired Kinsmen Telemiracle 5 in 1981. Dad was a long-serving member of various Boards of Directors, including the Saskatoon Centennial Auditorium Foundation, the Waskesiu Lobstick Golf Course, and the Waskesiu Cabin Owners Association. 

 Dad thrived in retirement. He used to joke that he didn't know how he'd had time to work. He played Old Timers hockey, fished, hunted, skied, golfed, played racquetball and jogged. He took up photography, baked Nanaimo bars, and did small fix-it jobs at Waskesiu golf course with his buddy Gord Wintermute. Dad joined the Saskatoon Woodworkers Guild and had one of the proudest moments of his life in a joint show called Family Tree with Nicki that featured his wooden bowls and bottle stoppers and her forest and tree paintings. He traveled to Scotland, Turkey, Greece, Perú, England, France, China, and sailed the Danube with Karen. And Dad loved to be a special guest in Janet's Grade One classroom reading stories, bringing donuts and hearing about loose teeth.

 Bob is survived by his three girls Karen Racine, Nicki Ault and Janet Murray, son-in-law John Ault and grandsons Sam and Tommy Ault, his sister Pat Walker, in-laws Linda and Bill Bahr and Bob and Joanne McLeod, and Sam's sweet girlfriend Paige Adams who melted his heart. He was predeceased by his wife Barbara (McLeod) Racine, parents Gordon and Peggy Racine, older sister Barbara, and son-in-law Dale Murray. Dad never really got over the loss of our mom, but his many good friends and social circles kept him going. In particular we thank: Trevor Forrest, Gren Smith-Windsor, Ken Turner, Harvey and Emily Matheson, Paulette Benoit, Alec Ladouceur, Carole Donnelly, Norm Grieve, Faye Mazzei, Jeff Pinder, Trent Watts, "the Y guys," his coffee guys, Dad's neighbors at Oasis Manor, the Palm Springs crew, and finally, we extend gratitude to all the wonderful nurses and respiratory therapists at RUH room 6219 who supported Dad in his final days.

 Arrangements are in the care of the Saskatoon Funeral Home. There will be a memorial service at the Saskatoon Prairieland Park Hall C on Friday, July 24th at 11:00 AM, with a reception and light refreshments to follow onsite. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Saskatoon YMCA, the Saskatoon Minor Hockey League, or the Saskatoon Cancer Centre.