Robert W. Hansen, a lifelong Metuchen resident, passed away on August 4, 2013 at the Veterans Memorial Home, Menlo Park, at the age of 85. A Navy veteran who served during World War II and Korea, Mr. Hansen later worked as a Metuchen postman before moving on to General Motors, from which he retired.

Born at home to Danish immigrants in 1928, Mr. Hansen's boyhood was overshadowed by his family's hardships during the Great Depression. This fostered in him both caution and a profound sense of duty to his family. After graduation from Metuchen High School and two stints in the Navy, Mr. Hansen settled into a long and quiet life in the family house directly across Lake Avenue from his birthplace. Mr. Hansen never married, instead helping to support his mother and sister. Mr. Hansen also took an active interest in his nieces and nephew, all of whom he supported and encouraged.

In his retirement, Mr. Hansen became a familiar sight in Metuchen as he strolled daily around his beloved borough. A proud member of the VFW and the Metuchen-Edison Historical Society, he was known to family and close friends simply as "Uncle Bob." Occasionally touring New York with his sister, and later his nephew, he was thrilled late in life to visit his ancestral home in Denmark and meet family on a second continent.

This kindly, quiet gentleman with a self-deprecating sense of humor has now departed to join his parents, his sister Thora, and his niece Jennifer. He leaves behind his brothers Hans and Peter, his niece Elizabeth, his nephew Peter, his grand-nieces Eleanor and Madeleine, and his grand-nephews Truman, William, Addison and Michael.

Mr. Hansen's life will be gratefully commemorated at 11 a.m. on Saturday, August 10, 2013 at the Flynn / Koyen Funeral Home, 319 Amboy Avenue, Metuchen. Interment will be at Hillside Cemetery, Metuchen. Visitation will be held from 10-11 a.m. Donations may be made in his memory to: The Metuchen-Edison Historical Society, P.O. Box 61, Metuchen, NJ 08840.