Bob grew up in a small town near Eugene, Oregon, USA. Dalva, his wife, was born and raised in Recife, Brazil, where she has a large extended family. Attracted to adventure and foreign lands, Bob first came to know Brazil as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Later, he served as an Associate Peace Corps Director in Guatemala. His love of people led him to a career in school counseling, during which time he founded a small nonprofit organization that provided academic scholarships to impoverished Brazilian and Tanzania children.
He has degrees from the University of Washington and the University of Oregon. For 16 years he was a member of the Metropolitan Rotary Club of Eugene, Oregon.
He published a memoir in 2021 - "No Ghosts in the Graveyard, The Lifetime Adventures of a Small-Town Oregon Boy", by Bob Crites. It is available on amazon.com in ebook and print versions.
Dalva is a living encyclopedia of Brazilian music and northeast Brazilian culture. She is renowned among family and friends for her delicious, traditional regional cuisine. As a quintessential northeasterner, she is passionate about her northeastern culture and its traditions. To know Dalva is to love her. She is an unofficial Brazilian ambassador par excellence. Interestingly, she is a citizen of Brazil, Italy (her grandfather immigrated to Brazil), and the United States. She thinks that three passports are enough. In retirement, Bob and Dalva split their time between living in Eugene, Oregon, and Recife, Brazil.
For more information, read Bob’s published memoirs “No Ghosts in the Graveyard: The Lifetime Adventures of a Small-Town Oregon Boy”, available on Amazon.