Glen Robert Buckendorf (Bob) was born on July 30, 1949 to Glen and Annette Buckendorf in Twin Falls, ID. He was the eldest of six kids and loved to say them in order: Bobby, Billy, Barry, Betty, Benny and Bart. Bob earned his BS degree from the College of Idaho in 1971, the same year that he married Jolene Hayashi from Ontario, OR on a school-sponsored field trip to Australia. The next stop on his life adventure was Pocatello, ID, where he earned a Master in Speech Language Pathology, 1975. Then on to Portland, OR for spiritual training by Lee and Marilyn Brase and beginning his life-long love of speech therapy with kiddos. 1979, he started his 1st speech therapy private practice in Hillsboro with Dr. Larry Krupa. In 93-94, he moved his family to Wichita, KS where he earned his PhD education with graduation in 1997. After 20 years of private practice, he needed a new adventure, so in 1999, it was CDRC at OHSU. Then he decided to open a second private practice, Buckendorf Associates, which opened in 2006. He sold his practice in 2015 and moved to Idaho in 2016 to be near his family. He died on August 28 at University Hospital in Salt Lake City from a massive stroke. He is survived by his wife, Jolene; married children: Shanna and Ryan Henkel, Kari and Clay Hawks and BJ and Tracy Buckendorf; 9 grandchildren; mother, Annette; and siblings: Bill, Barry, Betty, Ben and Bart. His life-long dream was to share his skills overseas. Over the last 10 years, he went to MANY countries to teach his skill of connecting with kids with autism.Bob's passion was for the least of these. He specialized in speech therapy for little people – especially the autistic. In his field, he was best known for continuing development of and training in "floor time." Floor time involves getting on the child's level and playing – playing in such a way that the child is enticed to join.People described his work as sacred. Those who had the privilege of observing him with an autistic client would see a child locked into a world of his own sitting on the floor against the wall. His heart-broken dad would be with Bob and the little child.Bob would sit on the floor and begin playing with a balloon while talking to the small fellow. Then Bob involved the dad tossing the colorful balloon to him. Bob was his usual jolly self – teasing, exclaiming, laughing. The dad awkwardly joined in.Then the curtain of heaven parted, unlocking the image of God in the little tyke. His head popped up. He looked straight at his dad. Laughed and batted the balloon to him. The dad exclaimed, "That's the first time he's done that! He looked at me! He is playing with ME!" Then he broke down weeping while they all played on. Joy filled the air.His happy spirit filled the space around him no matter how big that was. He was passionate about sharing his relationship with Christ. His main goal was to have fun and to help those around him have fun, too. Those of us who are left will miss him.His celebration of life service will be at Cedar Mill Bible Church in Portland, OR on Sept. 10 at 10 AM. Memorial donations can be made to Blanket Coverage, P.O. Box 3603 Portland, OR 97208.