05/28/2026
LOVE THIS Dreama Denver ❤️
Life With Severe Autism
You may remember Bob Denver played the goofball Gilligan on “Gilligan’s Island” and Maynard G. Krebs on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.” But he was also a loving dad of a severely autistic son named Colin.
Bob met his wife of 28 years, Dreama, in Florida in 1977. Bob was traveling the country then, doing local theater, and they were to play the leads in a production of "Play It Again, Sam."
They married in Las Vegas in 1979 and spent six years touring the country together, acting together, enjoying each other.
In 1983 — Bob was 48, Dreama was 33 — they decided to have a child.
Colin was born in January 1984. His umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck and he was blue, but after he was freed he was in otherwise good shape and they were looking forward to parenting together.
Colin grew but he didn't develop. In January 1986, the day after the shuttle Challenger explosion, a doctor at UCLA Medical Center told Bob and Dreama that for his good and theirs, they should institutionalize him. But that wasn't an option.
Colin was nonverbal, could not take care of himself, had no regular sleep pattern and required 24-hour attention. Dreama says in her book, "It's hard to explain how Colin took over our lives to the point we really had no life except the one that revolved around him and his needs, but he did."
About 1991, they decided they wanted to settle in one place, and it was Bob's idea to choose West Virginia. They found a house at the top of a hill, at the end of a quiet road outside Princeton, and settled in to care for Colin.
In 1993, Bob launched the Denver Foundation to help parents caring for children with autism. In 2000 they launched Little Buddy Radio, a nonprofit to raise money for the foundation, and in 2003 hired a part-time caretaker for Colin, granting them some freedom to run the radio station.
Then, in 2005, with Bob's health noticeably declining, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. A weak heart necessitated a delay in the surgery that would take out his voice box. Over the next six months, he underwent radiation therapy and Dreama suffered a heart attack while Bob was in the hospital. The cancer, the radiation and Bob's weak heart all took its toll and Bob passed in September, four days before their 28th anniversary. Colin was 21 years old.
Colin's caregivers told her afterward that when they were first gone to North Carolina for Bob's surgery and treatment, Colin would drag them from room to room in the house. They felt like he was looking for them.
Now, knowing she's set everything up for him to the best of her ability — he has three caretakers now and lives in his own house with them across the road from her — “There's some consolation in knowing that he just lives in a different world than we do."
Dreama says, “I wanted the fans to know who Bob really was because he was a special, special man, especially when dealing with our son Colin, who has severe autism. I thought it was important to tell people that he set aside the last 21 years of his life to be with me and take care of our son, who had to have full-time care, because he didn’t want me to do it alone. That speaks to the type of human being he was.” ❤️
Dreama has an Instagram and shares updates about Colin. https://www.instagram.com/dreamadenver?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
