Clyde McGregor

I had a class or two with Bob at OC back when I thought my future was in science, but I really got to know him as an OC trustee. Our board is full of interesting, talented individuals, but Bob stood out. He was witty, generous, and able to defuse tense moments when real differences emerged. At one meeting he surprised the board with coffee cups emblazoned with each person's yearbook picture. He was also a fine pianist. The board wished him to become chair, but his health caused him to decline. His sudden passing in 2011 was a great loss. 

Cynthia Brown

I never crossed paths with Bob at Oberlin.  Decades later, we made up for lost time.

I met Bob during a phone call where my job was to interview him and report on how he might fit as a trustee at Oberlin.  Fit?  Not only did he become a trustee but before his abrupt death it was expected that he would be the next chair.  I can’t forget that call.  Normally a 45-minute affair, it lasted hours, as I tried to keep up with one of the most brilliant, irreverently funny, and alive people I had ever met. It was like trying to jump on a moving train, in the best way.

Bob would say that being a trustee made his life infinitely richer.  As did Oberlin.

Bob grew up in an area where going to college was not always expected.  What?  I could go to college?  At Oberlin a biology professor pointed him to medical school.  What?  I could be a doctor?   He jumped at possibilities he had not earlier imagined, developing a remarkable career as a doctor, and, on the side, as a pianist.  And during his last years, as a beloved Oberlin trustee. 

Bob was born to the role.  The sense on the board (they adored him) was that he could go from being their “deliciously deranged cruise ship social director” to nailing a complex idea in the warmest and most respectful and most powerful way.  Bob worked so hard in this role, and it brought him such joy.

One of Bob's trustee projects...gleefully organizing "The First Occasionally Annual Trustee Talent Extravaganza" in Kulas Recital Hall. Otherwise called a "high flying hootenanny" (Bob's words). An opthamologist played a jazz piece called "In the Dark"   Another professed love for the piccolo trumpet, defending it against charges it looked like a Mattel toy.   Bob played a piece by a Russian composer, dedicating his performance to Sarah "I can see Russia from my house" Palin. The night ended with a harpsichord/trumpet duet of "Somewhere over the Rainbow".

One very typical Bob story—his wedding to dear husband Steve Natterstad.  Bob had planned a great and likely dignified wedding, but had to turn on a dime as Proposition 8, banning same-sex marriage in California, was looming larger.  If they wanted to marry, it would have to be quite soon, and only one date remained at City Hall.  October 31.  Halloween. With many couples.  In an auditorium.

Bob wore a devil-red suit.  Steve, color blind, never really knew how Bob dressed him.  He wore a very blueberry suit.  Yes, they went as red state and blue state.  They were married by Captain Kirk.  According to Bob, his favorite couple in the auditorium that day came as a Playboy bunny and Che Guevara.  It was not at all the wedding he had envisioned, but as Bob always did, he relished it.  And he made it his own.

I look at his college yearbook photo in another box here, described by his husband Steve as unfortunately very Little Lord Fauntleroy.  Maybe I can do better with a few images--I'll add them shortly.

Long ago I was working on a piece for the alumni magazine, all about the alumni elected trustee process and the candidates.  We asked Bob for a photo for the issue.  Arriving on campus I picked up a sealed manila envelope he had sent me.  The Communications staff and I opened it.  There was a picture of Bob, unclothed from the waist up, striking a very impressive pose.   This was quintessentially Bob.  I think the staff was terrified.

He would have loved knowing it was posted here, with a few others. 

Bob died far too young.  Still, so many of us are hugely grateful for all the time shared.  He is missed. And yes, they threw away the mold.