2026 HONOREE bob shoemaker

If Bob Shoemaker were to choose one word to describe his life, it would be “service.” If one were to add another word, it would be “faith.”

Bob was born in New Jersey in 1933. In 1951, while serving as President of the New Jersey Conference of the Methodist Church Youth Fellowship he felt a calling to enter the ministry. He graduated from at Princeton University four years later, and he and wife Norma headed to Texas where he attended Perkins school of Theology at Southern Methodist University.  After 15 months, Bob shared with Norma that he felt this was not his calling—he needed to be out among the people rather than having to focus a good deal of his ministerial time in continuing education. Norma fully supported this decision, however she advised Bob he needed to find a job as their first child was on the way! Vocational testing at Southern Methodist University led him to explore youth services. While Bob had never been a scout, three of his associates at his church pointed him to the Boy Scouts of America. This began his 40-year career with the Boy Scouts. He served in 9 locations and was the CEO in 5 of them, from as far west as San Antonio and Beaumont, TX and Texarkana, to ‘out east’ In White Plains, NY, then to two locations in Michigan. Having to relocate so many times was challenging, especially for their four sons during their school years. Bob finished up his career back home in New Jersey, where he had oversight of the 11 largest Boy Scout Councils in the Northeast. Bob retired at the end of 1996. Thus began the next chapter which many of us are more familiar with -- here in Hot Springs Village.

Like many of us, Bob and Norma found the Village through a friend. They had a wonderful visit here in 1994, then as they were attending a national Scout meeting in Tennessee, used some of that time to explore retirement communities there. Both agreed that HSV was going to be the perfect place to be. The decision being made, The Shoemakers headed here permanently in 1997.

Community service had always interested Bob, so upon settling here he joined a POA committee. This led to his running for the POA Board (two times unsuccessfully). During this time Bob had been instrumental in founding the Government Affairs Committee, and eventually became its Chair. Some time later, Board Chair Tom Arwood was able to appoint Bob to fill a vacancy. He was elected on his own twice after that, and served 6 ½ years on the Board, both as Vice President and President.

Now well-known and with a proven record of service, Bob was asked to serve on the HSV Chamber of Commerce Board which he did for 6 years, and the HSV Community Foundation Board which he did for 9 years. He remained on the Government Affairs Committee through the early 2020’s.

Bob has been an active supporter and participator in the Cancer Walk from its beginning. His wife Norma was the Walk’s 2011 honoree. She unfortunately lost her battle with cancer in 2012.  Upon her death, Bob spent some time in Michgan with his family as part of his grief journey. After returning to HSV Bob was determined to resume his full life here, however he did not want to attend concerts and other events alone.  Bob found the next love of his life within his church family at Village United Methodist Church. He asked widow Connie Feddersen to accompany him to social events. They were engaged 6 weeks later and married on August 24, 2013.

As a member of Village United Methodist Church, Bob chaired the Parish Committee for 5 years, and chaired the church’s 50thanniversary celebration as well. Bob and Connie moved to Lake Forest Senior Living in October of 2023. Bob offered to become President of LFSL’s Resident Council, and served in that position in 2025.  Currently he has formed a church shepherd group for the 18 VUMC members who live at Lake Forest.  He has been a Rotarian for 29 years.

This 93-year old man of service and faith began his journey with cancer quite recently. While visiting his ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor) in 2025, a lump on Bob’s neck was discovered. They decided to watch it for a while. By August it had grown significantly. A biopsy in September revealed stage-4 non-Hodgkins lymphoma. A pet scan revealed that the cancer had spread significantly as well. In the words of Dr. Timothy Webb (who had also been Norma’s doctor), the pet scan “lit up like a Christmas tree.” An aggressive chemotherapy regimen was in order. Bob received treatments on 2 consecutive days for 4 months. He handled the treatments well, mostly experiencing a loss of energy but not many other debilitating effects. 

In January of this year, Bob had another pet scan. In the words of Dr. Webb, “the lights were out” meaning the cancer was gone. Bob remains on a chemo maintenance program once a month. Thanks to Genesis opening their facility here in HSV, Bob can have his treatments locally. 

Bob did not experience cancer until he was 92 and is now cancer free at 93. What an example of how far cancer research has come since our Cancer Walk began 25 years ago! 

As I began this story, I said that Bob’s life can be described as one of faith as well as one of service. His deep and unfailing faith has carried him through the cancer journey of wife Norma and through his own cancer journey. This remarkable man continues to this day to live a life of faith filled with service to his church and his community. 

Bill Goodwin’s journey is unique for our Cancer Walk. Bill did not pass away directly from the cancer from which he suffered  but from another challenge he faced. We are proud to expand on his story and to honor his memory this year.

Bill was born in Homewood, Alabama. Starting in the 1990s, he was active in numerous service organizations and businesses in Hot Springs. The Goodwins moved to Hot Springs Village in 2013, where Bill enjoyed fishing and horticulture among other activities. 

Bill was always very supportive and interested in the Cancer Walk, even before he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.  Under the care of Dr. Fred Divers at Genesis Cancer Center, he underwent a series of treatments that have proven to be very successful. These treatments along with follow-up PET and CT scans gave Bill a great deal of confidence. Both Bill and Lisa continued to participate in the Cancer Walk.  Bill especially enjoyed going, where he would visit with the many other individuals he knew there and bid on the silent auction items (while Lisa walked). He was a very social individual and loved telling his cancer story and how successful the treatment had been.  He gave a lot of credit to UAMS and their research and to Genesis Cancer Center and Dr. Divers.  At the time of his death, he had not had any PET scans in some time, but a CT scan in the summer of 2024 showed no recurrence. Dr. Divers had told him that the lymphoma would most likely recur at some point, however there is no way to know whether that was the case at the time of his death. 

In October of 2024, Bill was officially diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. He started participating with the Rock Steady Boxing Group at Lake Forest Fit for Life, which helped him a great deal.  However, his overall health continued to decline. In the early Spring of 2025, under the advice of his Primary Care Physician, Bill entered hospice care.  Arkansas Hospice (now Life Touch Health) came in to provide help. They noted that with his heart and cancer history, along with the ongoing decline from the Parkinson's symptoms, Bill definitely qualified and needed hospice services. 

By mid-April Lisa noticed that Bill was having more health challenges, and the hospice team agreed that his Parkinson’s was progressing rapidly  In mid-May the Goodwins made a 2-3 day trip to the Baton Rouge area for a family member's high school graduation, and so Bill could see one of his oldest friends who lived in the area. While this was a huge challenge as Bill was mostly wheelchair bound, Lisa made it happen because she knew how important it was to him.  On June 1, with the help of Bill’s grandson and other family members, they arranged a way to get Bill on his Lake Coronado pontoon boat for a ride on the lake. This made Bill very happy as he loved nothing more than being on the water.

 

The last week of Bill’s life was very difficult and he was essentially bedridden. Even so, on the night before he died, he was determined to sit up and visit with family for a couple of hours. This seemed to please him very much.

In the hours before he died while much of Bill’s speech was unintelligible, family members could tell he was calling out to his Heavenly Father and was quite aware of where he was headed. The family spent these last few hours at his bedside. He passed away around 7:00 on Friday night, June 13, 2025. 

Lisa cannot say enough good things about the Hospice team.  Nurse Laura, and CNA Sherry were absolutely incredible, as were the chaplain and social worker. While those last few weeks were challenging, the hospice team helped them both greatly.  They not only did their jobs, but it was obvious that they cared very deeply for their patients and their families.