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31 thoughts on “Memories of Robert Martin”
He told me a story about mixing up a batch of nitro- glycerine when he was in high school. He went out into the woods, hung it from a tree in a test tube and shot it with a 22 . It fell to the ground and broke. No explosion occured and he was disapointed.
a few yrs. ago dad said he’d had a dream, in which he was a bard in scotland or ireland , set way back in the days when bards traveled the countryside & sang the news to keep people informed ~~
I never realized that Dr. Martin actually lived in Willamette View.
My mother , basically the same age, lived there for several years, prior to her death, Jan. 2006, when she was
87.
I visited the home every time I came to Oregon, usually at least once a year, but never realized that he may have been very close by.
Living abroad, in France, did not allow me to go by so often, however I did have the highest respect for this center, who took care of my mom until the day she died, at lunch with my brother James.
I also did not realize the Reed College connection.
Both my dad, as well as a number of my brothers and sisters also attended the same school.
Small world.
May he rest in Peace.
John Dinsdale.
When I was in grade school and junior high I remember listening to Uncle Bob tell I joke, but I just didn’t get it. Looking at the other family faces seated around the table…nobody else did either (much to my relief!). During those years we visited Bob and Roberta and kids at their home on Schiller (?) near the Reed College campus where he was teaching at the time. As I reached my 40’s and 50’s, I began to “get” his jokes. Don’t know if he was using new material OR I was just ‘aging’ into his groove. But always fun to be around Bob Martin — but be prepared ’cause something unexpected might happen. (Roberta Pruitt Martin and my Mom, Betty Pruitt were to 2 girls in the R. W. Pruitt family) Their wedding photo at the Olivet Congregational Church (on Beacon Hill in Seattle) is a gem. As a toddler I too spent some time in that church which was pastored by Robert Walter Pruitt. (Roberta’s Dad & my Grandpa)
I just forwarded the memorial information to my siblings and wrote this …
The obituary is very interesting, knew some of his story but a lot I didn’t, wish I had known him better. And don’t the pictures of him look so much like mom?!! There’s also a picture of mom & Bob as kids, so very cute and it’s fascinating because I can see ALL of US in that picture! I was recently telling Sam that I didn’t think I looked like any of my siblings … now I do!
Jeannie McComb, Bob’s niece, daughter of his sister Bettie (Mary Elizabeth Martin) McComb
the smell of sawdust & one bright light bulb always takes me right back to dad working late at night on house repairs or rebuilding . dad said doing carpentry was relaxing for him after a long day of thinking at the college ! he said when he was young they usually rented a house & that’s like throwing $ out the window & when he grew up he was never going to rent , but would build or buy a home ! & so he did ! while in grad school in Ann Arbor he & mom designed a house & built it with some work parties of friends { i’m sure i helped at age 0-2 or so } it had a fireplace in the middle & bed that rolled under the closet & varios clever things . i’ve been told after we left, it’s been used for a waldorf school & many things ~ 1956 ? the house on schiller st. in portland had a dirt cellar & he figured out how to support it while we all helped dig out piles of dirt { slid it up a 2×12 ramp & out the small window & managed to poured a cement floor & walls to make a full basement ! ok i’m bragging , but i think my father is very clever & could do most anything !!{ that he thinks worth doing }~ & then there’s the cabin up mosier creek !& rock work ! & & &
Our family was friends with the Martins, but we lived far enough away that we only visited them a couple times a year. The way I remember it now, we stopped to visit them in Portand shortly after Christmas one time, when their Christmas tree was still up. Bob told how he had put up the tree after the kids were in bed. It was too tall, but instead of cutting off the bottom as people usually do, he cut off the top and put up the tree so the top of the trunk was right up against the fairly high ceiling of the old house. Then he went up and set up the short piece cut off the top as close as he could figure to directly above the tree below, so it gave the impression of coming up right through the floor. In the morning, when the kids came to see the Christmas tree, they looked at it and ran upstairs and saw it sticking up there.
I don’t know how old I was at the time, but I thought that was a pretty good trick, because I get ideas like that myself.
I joined the Lewis & Clark Music Faculty in September of 1968, and met Bob soon thereafter. It was my pleasure to work with Bob and his fine tenor voice on many occasions including Opera Workshop performances. My wife, Lilly, and I were guests, where Roberta was our hostess on many occasions. What a lovely and talented lady. Laura was kind enough to weave a beautiful wall hanging for us that still adorns our Living Room wall. Bob was a man of so many talents, was there really anything he could not do?
REST IN PEACE, DEAR FRIEND!
Hunter Moore
In our house on schiller st., dad told me to be careful what i said on the phone , our line might be taped because he counciled young people about being conciencous objectors to military service ~ i wasn’t sure what not to say on the phone ? But he often answered ithe phone with a cheerful ” Martin menagerie”, “one hour martinizing” or ” Duffys bar & grill “.! one of these times it was the president of Reed college calling ! dad was quite embaresed !
As a kid, I appreciated exposure to someone who thought outside of the box. I appreciate and benefited from his refusal to dumb down or condescend to me as a child. I think as a kid that I also sensed the high regard he had for intelligence and it was a good challenge aspiring to meet his standards (and I emphasize, aspire). I didn’t always understand the brain teases – It took me a number of years to figure out his comment, “Never mind the butter (or salt), eat your food,” when I asked for the butter (or salt) to be passed at dinner. His twitch of the lips smile (that quick, slightly upturned smile thing he did) made me laugh. And of course there was the absolute treat of hearing him sing.
As an adult, I appreciate the toll it must have taken on him to stand so firmly to his principles. Would we all have to sacrifice as much for our principles as he did, the world would surely be a better place. I am also grateful to him for welcoming us to your family home. It is such a strong and fond memory of being in your Portland home hanging out with you guys, and I thank your parents for making those times and memories possible.
I lived with the Martins for a year when I was going to Lewis & Clark College, so I got the immersion treatment of the Martin family. To be in a home where Bob was his usual wild, wonderful, humorous self, relaxed and playful was a blessing to a young woman away for the first long time in her life. Bob and Roberta embraced me as their own, and I thrived under their caring natures. (Craig was living up in Argenta, going to Argenta Friends School, so it was a good trade, wasn’t it Craig. (The rest of the younger Martins, Laura, Chris & Doug were still at home.)
Bob’s humor and playfulness as well as his CPS stories made me feel at home, as my dad shared these things with Bob!
I first met Bob and Roberta in Ann Arbor MI when I was 11. My father had known Bob in Ames IA during the war, and when Bob turned up in Ann Arbor he invited him over. This began a long friendship between our two families. My father wanted to build a small house next-door to ours on our property east of Ann Arbor. Bob knew how to build. Between them and Bob’s friends, the house went up, and the Martins were our next-door neighbors for five years, to my great joy. In the winter of 1949-50, before the house was finished, Bob, Roberta and Craig lived in our house to look after me while my parents went to Puerto Rico with Dad’s job. Bob sparked off in me a delight in puns and word play, which I have never lost. My parents were a bit bemused on their return. Craig provided me with my first baby-sitting experience, which stood me in good stead later on. In years since, I have managed to visit them in Portland and Vienna and they visited us here in England, where I now live. I’ve always been grateful to have known Bob and his family; he was one of the really important people in my life.
Bob met Roberta through his friendship with her brother, Bob Pruitt (my father). He instantly became part of the extended family – and clearly shared the “more the merrier” brand of hospitality that I observed growing up with the “cousins”. On the Pruitt side, the Martins and the Paul Pruitts were the families we saw most frequently. The atmosphere when we gathered was always rich with appreciation, generosity, intellectual stimulation, and robust competition.
While living with the Martin family for two of my college years, I fully experienced the depth of Uncle Bob’s talent and character of which others have written. What stands out for me, in hindsight, is the zeal with which Bob lived his life. He and Roberta did so much in their work, in their community, and in their home. But the three “categories” of effort were woven seamlessly into one life of uncommon integrity.
It has been said that we don’t know what we have until its gone. I prefer the sentiment that we can more readily mature into the roles of our mentors when we can no longer rely upon their efforts. Bob Martin has given me more “personal aspiration” material than anyone else on the planet. He clearly provided many (whom his life touched) with personal growth opportunities. Still, I cannot argue with those who feel we shouldn’t have to “lose” someone to benefit fully from their life. Perhaps Bob’s own words apply. When asked in the lingo of the sixties “Is that right?”, Bob’s snappy comeback was… “It may not be right, but it’s true!”
One year my Dodd family travelled to Pacific Yearly Meeting of Friends in car pool with the Martins and some young Friends. Usually its the kids that make interactions wild, but for us it was more the parents, a zany trip, with our amazing parents! I also remember going to see my very first Gilbert and Sullivan opera, either Pirates of Penzance, or HMS Pinafore, (?) not sure anymore, with Bob as a cast member.
I remember (I think!) that the first time the Martin family came to visit us Dodds in Mukilteo, we had been at a Quaker gathering and Bob and Roberta wanted to continue travelling up towards our place just so we could be together for a little while longer (say from Portland to Chehalis, etc.) but Bob kept driving and we all ended up at our house!
I remember his ability to make a pun on ANY sentence someone said! I have since picked up his habit and hope I don’t overdo it too often. Thanks, Bob
Dear Doug and Martin family members,
Our sincere condolences on the loss of your father. We feel so privileged to have been close friends with him and your mom and cherish the memories of sing-alongs, soup suppers, luncheons, Mosier and just socializing and working on book projects: How Little Columbo.… and R As In Christopher. More than anything, we have great gratitude for their profound appreciation and dedication to the handicapped which helps a great deal now with David our son.
Because of his deep appreciation of German culture and music which grew over the years after touring Austria/Germany with college kids (an experience he cherished and recounted to us many times), I always saved old German manuscripts I stumbled on for your dad’s translation when we gathered for dinner. He loved the challenge and would savor the words and reflect on them like a bulldog chewing on a bone. On the other hand such serious work usually didn’t last too long – your father would close his eyes and cringe in painful laughter at my untimely bad puns – but he always outdid me with his own bad jokes and play with words, spinning ordinary meanings upside down.
As Christian and CO, he taught us the appreciation of simple living. As it happens, just this past Christmas, we donated to one project he and your mom taught us about – the Heifer foundation. We will continue to do so in memory of your parents. How wonderful that they have a loving and caring family and the love they had for all of you.
Best regards,
Chuck and Erma Lehman
I was a student in Bob’s upper division E&M physics class at Reed.
I owe my whole Reed College education to Bob. I applied to Reed from a tiny Quaker boarding high school in Iowa which gave no letter grades. Bob, a Quaker, explained to Reed why my application should be considered even though I had no grades.
Bob was my faculty advisor when I was a physics major at Reed College between Fall 1957 and Spring 1961. During that time I was one of the Martin family’s primary sitters. All four children were already born but Doug as a baby. I remember changing Doug’s diapers, trying to prevent Chris from escaping (the clever bugger!), and trying to keep Craig from frustrating Laura too much. And of course, I spent many evenings drinking tea when Bob and Roberta returned from various evening events.
My junior year when we took E&M from “Dr. Martin” he used to grab our textbooks and check to see how much reading we’d finished by looking at the grub on the edge of the pages. And, he gave those of use who needed help throughout our years special attention. For example, when we were working on senior projects most of our thesis advisors ignored us. Mine certainly did. For my project, I was supposed to build modern equipment to replicate Rutherford’s famous scattering experiment first done in 1911 that established the atomic nucleus as a tiny dense object that was much smaller that the atom with its electrons “swirling” around tit. My thesis advisor never offered to meet with me, and I had an impossible time getting started. When I told Bo. Martin about my problem, he immediately offered to help, and We spent most of a Saturday machining parts and assembling apparatus. It was a wonderful kick start that “saved the year” for me. Subsequently, I spent hundreds of hours improving the apparatus and taking data. So 50 years after Rutherford, I was able to confirm Rutherford’s findings based on the pattern of alpha particle scattering from thin sheets of gold foil. It was so thrilling to finish my thesis with flying colors, and I am very grateful for Bob Martin’s help. I think that my classmate Jerry Millstein and I wouldn’t have organized the first ever Thesis Parade in May of 1961, if we hadn’t had such good thesis experiences. The Martin’s remained lifelong friends. They visited Ken, me and our two children at our cablin in the woods in Central Pennsylvania in the early 1970s. Subsequently, I would visit Bob and Roberta at their home and in later years at Williamette Manor whenever I came to Portland. Both Bob and Roberta and their offspring were such good people!! I will never forget them as long as I live. –Priscilla Watson Laws ’61 (Research Professor of Physics, Dickinson College, Carlisle PA)
I first met Dr. Martin in the late 1970’s when I was working as an import auto tech (mechanic) at the Exxon station across the street from Cleveland HS and Bob was driving a lime-green Fiat Strada. While driving Bob home to SE Schiller Street we discovered we had several things in common. During my wife’s (Liz Dally’s) student years at Reed she had been a draft counselor, and Bob and I had great admiration for Richard Feynman. (Bob gave me a copy of “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman”. When Liz and I opened our own shop in 1983 on SE Hawthorne Blvd, Bob followed us over here. I am currently looking for an old photo of Bob, standing with our service advisor under his car on a lift, that we used to have on our Web site. I will post it if I find. I have numerous stories I could tell, but I now want to share a particularly moving event.
By the winter of 2000 Bob had for many years been driving a 4X4 Toyota Tercel station wagon, the perfect vehicle for climbing hills on their property in Mosier, which he did regularly. Suddenly the little engine in this car seized and needed to be replaced. We located a good, low miles, used engine, but with parts and labor, including performing update maintenance on the replacement engine before we installed it, the bill was going to be expensive at a retired prof pay grade. As if by magic ;-), a group of Bob’s former students appeared at our shop with a check covering about 90% of the estimate, with instructions to let them know what the balance would be upon completion. Knowing Bob for as long as I had by that time, somehow I was not surprised at all at his former student’s generosity. The last I knew daughter Laura still had that little Tercel wagon in Port Townsend.
dad instead of being overprotective had a standing offer that if i couldn’t find a safe ride home from folk dancing i could call home & he would come get me ! becuase my parents took us to folk dancing i got a wide apriciation for music , dance & costumes from many cultures at a young age , we danced at Reed , & norse hall & then we started “Family folk dancing nights at Mt. scottt community center & Lewis & Clarke . i didn’t know many other kids whose father folk danced !
Not really a story, just a huge appreciation for Bob, whom I can’t really think of without Roberta. John & I were at Reed only 2 years, 1957-59 (it was clear from the start that John wouldn’t get tenure), and we’d just come from a wonderful but highly stressful student year in France, with a 2-year-old + a new baby. John was slaving over his dissertation so he could support us. I see from the wonderful memories of Bob (above) that he & Roberta had already been married nearly 20 years, but we never felt any age gap between our families. As so many others have said here, the Martin family took John & me, & our little girls, right in to a great deal of their family life. Roberta used to phone me every morning; I’d never had a friend who did that. She was a lifeline for me, taking care of my girls, inviting us for dinner and for trips in their beat-up blue van to interesting places. Bob’s puns and jokes, yet always caring about you too, with that straight, tender look he had…their music..their courage and indomitableness regarding Christopher… altogether, they were a beautiful force of nature! From very little, they created and abundantly shared loaves and fishes.
I was a student of Dr. Martin’s at Lewis and Clark from 1967 through 1971. He was my advisor and mentor.
There a number of little pieces of wisdom I picked up from him that I carried through my career (as an actuary, not a physicist). The value of “gedanken experiments” to grasp a problem; never using both hands when working with a live electrical circuit; trimming a problem down to its most simple form and understanding the basics before moving to more complicated situations. I often invoked the Hydrogen Atom Principle with my actuarial colleagues: we studied the hydrogen atom in hysics for two years because one can’t really understand the higher elements if you don’t understand hydrogen.
Dr. Martin had a wonderful sense of humor and an obvious love for music. He often talked about the link between the great physicist of the past and their love and understanding of music. He, in turn, felt like my link to those great minds of the 30s and 40s.
Our condolences to the Martin family (my wife Carol is a Lewis and Clark graduate who traveled with one of Dr. Martin’s groups to Austria during her time and Lewis and Clark).
Thanks for the photos, too. Even though it might not be a favorite, I like the passport photo from around 1966. That’s right about the time I met Dr. Martin and how I shall remember him,
Mike Akers
I was a Physics major at L&C between 1979 and 1983. Dr. Martin always had time to help answer my homework and lab questions any time his office door was open and he wasn’t teaching a class. I appreciated his ability to break down problems I didn’t understand, into problems I did understand. More than once he would say “Tricked you!” or “See, you really did know the answer after all”. He was also a big advocate of having students work together to cooperatively solve problems, pointing out the value of different ways of looking at problems to come up with a better understanding of classroom material.
The following “song” (guitar serenade) to Dr. Martin was written in chalk on one of the (concrete) classroom walls by one of my fellow Physics students, circa 1980. I think there was maybe a 3rd verse, but this is what I remember.
Hello Dr. Martin, How are you today?
You’re looking very fine
And did I hear you say
That they may come and they may go
But I will always stay.
Hello Dr. Martin, How are you today?
Hello Dr. Martin, You’re looking very fine.
I see you have some tests,
Do you have the one that’s mine?
And did I hear you say
That you gave me an A.
Hello Dr. Martin, How are you today?
I drove recently by the house on SE Schiller where the Martins used to live, where I used to visit often in the 1960’s. Bob and Roberta (back then often one unit in my mind), Craig, Laura, Chris and Doug. The house is tall and is brightly painted. It is, however, much smaller than I remembered. I remember many gatherings in the house with lots of people, musical instruments, singing, food and laughter.
Now, with Bob’s passing, I also recall outings I enjoyed with the Martin family back then, being included in their family. To the coast, the countryside, Argenta, BC, Gilbert and Sullivan productions at the Civic Auditorium, the movie “West Side Story” when it was new, summer visits and potluck meals with Friends. Bob stands tall and lives on in many memories of my formative years.
I was fortunate enough to inherit the position on the Reed College physics faculty that Bob had vacated when he moved from Reed to Lewis & Clark. Got to know him well only after he had retired to Lewis & Clark, during the days when he worked in Jean Delord’s lab, and I in the wood shop across the hall in the sub-basement of the Reed’s A. A. Knowlton Physics Building. We spent many happy hours together, chatting as often about music as about physics. And during the late 70s & early 80s he lived in a tall house just around the corner from me. I recall that one Saturday, as I headed home from Reed, I saw him hiking up the Woodstock hill, stopped, asked him if I could give him a lift, discovered that he had arranged for a pianist to meet him Community Music Center, over on SE Francis, where he looked forward to spending the afternoon singing Brahms lieder. Seemed ever after to me to speak to the quiet essence of Bob.
I was a student at Reed 1956-1960.. The first week I was at Reed I saw a little sign asking for a baby-sitter. I called up Roberta and went over to the house on Schiller and immediately I felt included in their family. I loved them so much. I remember a gathering of students in their living room. Chris and I think Doug were unrolling toilet paper, which was so much fun. An antidote to the stress of Reed. I remember piling into their blue van on Sunday mornings and going to Friends Meeting. I went camping with them on Orcas Island. Bob was always making things. The most amazing was that he and Laura built Laura a little house in their back yard using materials they got free.
Bob and Roberta introduced me to pacifism. I could see how Chris enriched all our lives. After Reed I got married and our families continued our friendship. I feel so grateful to have known Bob and Roberta and Laura and Chris and Craig and Doug.
During the late ’50s and ’60’s our family was with the Martin family often, at Reed College functions where both Bob and George Hay taught, at Quaker Meeting, at various musical gatherings and at Orcas Island, WA, where George and I had a little summer cabin.
In the early “60’s, our family was on sabbatiacal in Nigeria for two years, and the Martin family spent whatever time they could at the Orcas cabin. With a long winding road and ferries to catch it took a full day to drive up from Protland. Once Bob had to return to Portland before the rest of the family, so he caught the little puddle-jumper plane from Eastsound to make the flight south. The plane took off to the north, circled south, and Bob looked out the window to see his wife and kids jumping and waving on the air strip, obviously greatly agitated. Bob got the message and remembered he had the car keys in his pocket. He managed to persuade the pilot to circle again so that he could open the side window and toss out the keys to Roberta and the kids below, saving undue angst among the rest of his family.
The Martin family has remained good friends over all these years.
I went to Lewis and Clark College a year ahead of Dr. Martin’s son, Craig, and we became friends. One thing we ended up doing together was going on the same L&C trip to Yugoslavia and playing guitars and singing with a lot of Russians!
I knew both Dr. and Mrs. Martin through Craig. One of my most favorite memories of my college experience is of a very special weekend I spent with the Martins, who were being the chaperones for a bunch of us L&C students. It was an “Experience in Silence” (or Experiment in Silence).
I remember that it happened the first weekend in February, and I’m pretty sure that it was in 1967. Early that Saturday morning we all piled into a caravan of 3 or 4 cars at L&C and headed to the coast and to Manzanita. The Martins had rented a house there where we could all stay. Rule number 1: as soon as we saw the ocean we had to stop all forms of verbal communication. That was a pretty tall order for me!
It was the most glorious weather I could imagine. As often happens in the beginning of February, we got a preview of Spring; but that year the temperature got up to 70 degrees! It was the best place possible to learn the art of not talking as we had plenty of sand to draw in and communicate with, as well as lots of running around space. For the most part, we were able to keep our voices wordless (I was amazed that it was as easy as it was), but I sure remember laughing and smiling A LOT!
We headed back to Portland on Sunday afternoon, and arrived at L&C in the dark. It seemed like we’d been gone for a week, and I remember that no one talked on the way back. I went to my dorm, where I lived with 3 other girls. They were as noisy and talkative as I’d been before I left, but it was overwhelming for me. As I recall, I went to bed quickly.
I always wished I’d taken a college class from Dr. Martin, but I was way too intimidated by what he taught. But having been around him and Mrs. Martin that weekend was such a gift to me. Mostly I remember him then as kind, gentle, very tolerant, and being very central to everything that happened those two days. That experience taught me to listen more than I talk and to pay attention to my surroundings. It was a very powerful experience and has stayed with me my whole life.
I’m sorry I can’t be at the Memorial to pay my respects, but I’ll be thinking about all of you on Saturday.
I have never forgotten Robert Martin’s performance as the Evangelist in the Bach “St. Matthew Passion” when we students and faculty presented it in the chapel at Reed College in May 1960. It is a demanding, exposed role, and he sang it beautifully and exquisitely in the spirit of the story. J. S. Bach would have enjoyed hearing him. I send my condolences to his family and friends.
Dear Laura, Chris, Doug, Craig, and all the Martin family,
I was sorry not to be able to attend the memorial for Bob in late February. It would have been a pleasure to take part in an active remembrance of his amazing life. Bob and Roberta were among the first people I met when I came to Lewis and Clark in 1978. They remained part of my life in one way or another for over forty years. I have fond memories of many evenings spent at their house, which is where at various times, I met all of you. Bob was my first private voice student in Oregon, twice no less!—first in 1978, then again when I returned to Oregon after some misguided wanderings in 1993. During both stints, I’m pretty sure I learned more from him than he did from me. Although they took me awhile to absorb, his examples of patience and quiet persistence had a strong effect on me. I usually appreciated the fact that Bob took nothing as a given. He weighed all input against his own perceptions and subjected it to his own thoughtful, kind, and fair-minded analysis. In the short run, from the point of view of a voice teacher, his deliberateness could sometimes slow the momentum of what I considered to be my brilliant pacing. But he has long since had the last laugh, as I now teach in what I think of as a Martinesque style. I feel grateful to have known this wonderful man. It’s clear that he touched many lives in a generous and honest way.
Robert L. Martin ’41, Faculty
A picture of Robert Martin
Robert L. Martin ’41, December 23, 2014, in Milwaukie, Oregon. Robert grew up in Oregon and Washington, graduated from Renton High School, and attended Reed on a scholarship. He earned a BA in physics, writing his thesis “Growth of Ionic Crystals” with Prof. A.A. Knowlton [physics 1915–48]. After graduation, he worked as a teaching fellow at the University of Washington and as a graduate assistant at Iowa State College. During World War II, he served as a conscientious objector, working on a land reclamation project near Trenton, North Dakota. Following this service, he resumed physics at the University of Michigan, where he earned an MA and a PhD. His thesis concerned theory and experiments about photographic latent image formation. Robert taught physics at Reed from 1956 until 1962, then taught at Lewis & Clark College until 1985. In retirement, he continued to work on properties of metal in a vacuum with Prof. Jean Delord [physics 1950–88] at Reed and at the Oregon Graduate Center. Robert and Roberta Pruitt met in Seattle in 1936, were married in 1946, and raised a family of four. The couple moved to Willamette View Manor in Milwaukie in 1981, and Roberta died in 2005. Robert was an accomplished musician, beginning his study of the B♭ clarinet and tenor saxophone early in life and later performing tenor vocals in local musicals, operas, and choral groups. Music was important to both Robert and Roberta and was central to their family. Survivors include three sons and a daughter and four grandchildren.
He told me a story about mixing up a batch of nitro- glycerine when he was in high school. He went out into the woods, hung it from a tree in a test tube and shot it with a 22 . It fell to the ground and broke. No explosion occured and he was disapointed.
a few yrs. ago dad said he’d had a dream, in which he was a bard in scotland or ireland , set way back in the days when bards traveled the countryside & sang the news to keep people informed ~~
I never realized that Dr. Martin actually lived in Willamette View.
My mother , basically the same age, lived there for several years, prior to her death, Jan. 2006, when she was
87.
I visited the home every time I came to Oregon, usually at least once a year, but never realized that he may have been very close by.
Living abroad, in France, did not allow me to go by so often, however I did have the highest respect for this center, who took care of my mom until the day she died, at lunch with my brother James.
I also did not realize the Reed College connection.
Both my dad, as well as a number of my brothers and sisters also attended the same school.
Small world.
May he rest in Peace.
John Dinsdale.
When I was in grade school and junior high I remember listening to Uncle Bob tell I joke, but I just didn’t get it. Looking at the other family faces seated around the table…nobody else did either (much to my relief!). During those years we visited Bob and Roberta and kids at their home on Schiller (?) near the Reed College campus where he was teaching at the time. As I reached my 40’s and 50’s, I began to “get” his jokes. Don’t know if he was using new material OR I was just ‘aging’ into his groove. But always fun to be around Bob Martin — but be prepared ’cause something unexpected might happen. (Roberta Pruitt Martin and my Mom, Betty Pruitt were to 2 girls in the R. W. Pruitt family) Their wedding photo at the Olivet Congregational Church (on Beacon Hill in Seattle) is a gem. As a toddler I too spent some time in that church which was pastored by Robert Walter Pruitt. (Roberta’s Dad & my Grandpa)
I just forwarded the memorial information to my siblings and wrote this …
The obituary is very interesting, knew some of his story but a lot I didn’t, wish I had known him better. And don’t the pictures of him look so much like mom?!! There’s also a picture of mom & Bob as kids, so very cute and it’s fascinating because I can see ALL of US in that picture! I was recently telling Sam that I didn’t think I looked like any of my siblings … now I do!
Jeannie McComb, Bob’s niece, daughter of his sister Bettie (Mary Elizabeth Martin) McComb
the smell of sawdust & one bright light bulb always takes me right back to dad working late at night on house repairs or rebuilding . dad said doing carpentry was relaxing for him after a long day of thinking at the college ! he said when he was young they usually rented a house & that’s like throwing $ out the window & when he grew up he was never going to rent , but would build or buy a home ! & so he did ! while in grad school in Ann Arbor he & mom designed a house & built it with some work parties of friends { i’m sure i helped at age 0-2 or so } it had a fireplace in the middle & bed that rolled under the closet & varios clever things . i’ve been told after we left, it’s been used for a waldorf school & many things ~ 1956 ? the house on schiller st. in portland had a dirt cellar & he figured out how to support it while we all helped dig out piles of dirt { slid it up a 2×12 ramp & out the small window & managed to poured a cement floor & walls to make a full basement ! ok i’m bragging , but i think my father is very clever & could do most anything !!{ that he thinks worth doing }~ & then there’s the cabin up mosier creek !& rock work ! & & &
Our family was friends with the Martins, but we lived far enough away that we only visited them a couple times a year. The way I remember it now, we stopped to visit them in Portand shortly after Christmas one time, when their Christmas tree was still up. Bob told how he had put up the tree after the kids were in bed. It was too tall, but instead of cutting off the bottom as people usually do, he cut off the top and put up the tree so the top of the trunk was right up against the fairly high ceiling of the old house. Then he went up and set up the short piece cut off the top as close as he could figure to directly above the tree below, so it gave the impression of coming up right through the floor. In the morning, when the kids came to see the Christmas tree, they looked at it and ran upstairs and saw it sticking up there.
I don’t know how old I was at the time, but I thought that was a pretty good trick, because I get ideas like that myself.
I joined the Lewis & Clark Music Faculty in September of 1968, and met Bob soon thereafter. It was my pleasure to work with Bob and his fine tenor voice on many occasions including Opera Workshop performances. My wife, Lilly, and I were guests, where Roberta was our hostess on many occasions. What a lovely and talented lady. Laura was kind enough to weave a beautiful wall hanging for us that still adorns our Living Room wall. Bob was a man of so many talents, was there really anything he could not do?
REST IN PEACE, DEAR FRIEND!
Hunter Moore
In our house on schiller st., dad told me to be careful what i said on the phone , our line might be taped because he counciled young people about being conciencous objectors to military service ~ i wasn’t sure what not to say on the phone ? But he often answered ithe phone with a cheerful ” Martin menagerie”, “one hour martinizing” or ” Duffys bar & grill “.! one of these times it was the president of Reed college calling ! dad was quite embaresed !
As a kid, I appreciated exposure to someone who thought outside of the box. I appreciate and benefited from his refusal to dumb down or condescend to me as a child. I think as a kid that I also sensed the high regard he had for intelligence and it was a good challenge aspiring to meet his standards (and I emphasize, aspire). I didn’t always understand the brain teases – It took me a number of years to figure out his comment, “Never mind the butter (or salt), eat your food,” when I asked for the butter (or salt) to be passed at dinner. His twitch of the lips smile (that quick, slightly upturned smile thing he did) made me laugh. And of course there was the absolute treat of hearing him sing.
As an adult, I appreciate the toll it must have taken on him to stand so firmly to his principles. Would we all have to sacrifice as much for our principles as he did, the world would surely be a better place. I am also grateful to him for welcoming us to your family home. It is such a strong and fond memory of being in your Portland home hanging out with you guys, and I thank your parents for making those times and memories possible.
I lived with the Martins for a year when I was going to Lewis & Clark College, so I got the immersion treatment of the Martin family. To be in a home where Bob was his usual wild, wonderful, humorous self, relaxed and playful was a blessing to a young woman away for the first long time in her life. Bob and Roberta embraced me as their own, and I thrived under their caring natures. (Craig was living up in Argenta, going to Argenta Friends School, so it was a good trade, wasn’t it Craig. (The rest of the younger Martins, Laura, Chris & Doug were still at home.)
Bob’s humor and playfulness as well as his CPS stories made me feel at home, as my dad shared these things with Bob!
I first met Bob and Roberta in Ann Arbor MI when I was 11. My father had known Bob in Ames IA during the war, and when Bob turned up in Ann Arbor he invited him over. This began a long friendship between our two families. My father wanted to build a small house next-door to ours on our property east of Ann Arbor. Bob knew how to build. Between them and Bob’s friends, the house went up, and the Martins were our next-door neighbors for five years, to my great joy. In the winter of 1949-50, before the house was finished, Bob, Roberta and Craig lived in our house to look after me while my parents went to Puerto Rico with Dad’s job. Bob sparked off in me a delight in puns and word play, which I have never lost. My parents were a bit bemused on their return. Craig provided me with my first baby-sitting experience, which stood me in good stead later on. In years since, I have managed to visit them in Portland and Vienna and they visited us here in England, where I now live. I’ve always been grateful to have known Bob and his family; he was one of the really important people in my life.
Bob met Roberta through his friendship with her brother, Bob Pruitt (my father). He instantly became part of the extended family – and clearly shared the “more the merrier” brand of hospitality that I observed growing up with the “cousins”. On the Pruitt side, the Martins and the Paul Pruitts were the families we saw most frequently. The atmosphere when we gathered was always rich with appreciation, generosity, intellectual stimulation, and robust competition.
While living with the Martin family for two of my college years, I fully experienced the depth of Uncle Bob’s talent and character of which others have written. What stands out for me, in hindsight, is the zeal with which Bob lived his life. He and Roberta did so much in their work, in their community, and in their home. But the three “categories” of effort were woven seamlessly into one life of uncommon integrity.
It has been said that we don’t know what we have until its gone. I prefer the sentiment that we can more readily mature into the roles of our mentors when we can no longer rely upon their efforts. Bob Martin has given me more “personal aspiration” material than anyone else on the planet. He clearly provided many (whom his life touched) with personal growth opportunities. Still, I cannot argue with those who feel we shouldn’t have to “lose” someone to benefit fully from their life. Perhaps Bob’s own words apply. When asked in the lingo of the sixties “Is that right?”, Bob’s snappy comeback was… “It may not be right, but it’s true!”
One year my Dodd family travelled to Pacific Yearly Meeting of Friends in car pool with the Martins and some young Friends. Usually its the kids that make interactions wild, but for us it was more the parents, a zany trip, with our amazing parents! I also remember going to see my very first Gilbert and Sullivan opera, either Pirates of Penzance, or HMS Pinafore, (?) not sure anymore, with Bob as a cast member.
I remember (I think!) that the first time the Martin family came to visit us Dodds in Mukilteo, we had been at a Quaker gathering and Bob and Roberta wanted to continue travelling up towards our place just so we could be together for a little while longer (say from Portland to Chehalis, etc.) but Bob kept driving and we all ended up at our house!
I remember his ability to make a pun on ANY sentence someone said! I have since picked up his habit and hope I don’t overdo it too often. Thanks, Bob
Dear Doug and Martin family members,
Our sincere condolences on the loss of your father. We feel so privileged to have been close friends with him and your mom and cherish the memories of sing-alongs, soup suppers, luncheons, Mosier and just socializing and working on book projects: How Little Columbo.… and R As In Christopher. More than anything, we have great gratitude for their profound appreciation and dedication to the handicapped which helps a great deal now with David our son.
Because of his deep appreciation of German culture and music which grew over the years after touring Austria/Germany with college kids (an experience he cherished and recounted to us many times), I always saved old German manuscripts I stumbled on for your dad’s translation when we gathered for dinner. He loved the challenge and would savor the words and reflect on them like a bulldog chewing on a bone. On the other hand such serious work usually didn’t last too long – your father would close his eyes and cringe in painful laughter at my untimely bad puns – but he always outdid me with his own bad jokes and play with words, spinning ordinary meanings upside down.
As Christian and CO, he taught us the appreciation of simple living. As it happens, just this past Christmas, we donated to one project he and your mom taught us about – the Heifer foundation. We will continue to do so in memory of your parents. How wonderful that they have a loving and caring family and the love they had for all of you.
Best regards,
Chuck and Erma Lehman
I was a student in Bob’s upper division E&M physics class at Reed.
I owe my whole Reed College education to Bob. I applied to Reed from a tiny Quaker boarding high school in Iowa which gave no letter grades. Bob, a Quaker, explained to Reed why my application should be considered even though I had no grades.
Bob was my faculty advisor when I was a physics major at Reed College between Fall 1957 and Spring 1961. During that time I was one of the Martin family’s primary sitters. All four children were already born but Doug as a baby. I remember changing Doug’s diapers, trying to prevent Chris from escaping (the clever bugger!), and trying to keep Craig from frustrating Laura too much. And of course, I spent many evenings drinking tea when Bob and Roberta returned from various evening events.
My junior year when we took E&M from “Dr. Martin” he used to grab our textbooks and check to see how much reading we’d finished by looking at the grub on the edge of the pages. And, he gave those of use who needed help throughout our years special attention. For example, when we were working on senior projects most of our thesis advisors ignored us. Mine certainly did. For my project, I was supposed to build modern equipment to replicate Rutherford’s famous scattering experiment first done in 1911 that established the atomic nucleus as a tiny dense object that was much smaller that the atom with its electrons “swirling” around tit. My thesis advisor never offered to meet with me, and I had an impossible time getting started. When I told Bo. Martin about my problem, he immediately offered to help, and We spent most of a Saturday machining parts and assembling apparatus. It was a wonderful kick start that “saved the year” for me. Subsequently, I spent hundreds of hours improving the apparatus and taking data. So 50 years after Rutherford, I was able to confirm Rutherford’s findings based on the pattern of alpha particle scattering from thin sheets of gold foil. It was so thrilling to finish my thesis with flying colors, and I am very grateful for Bob Martin’s help. I think that my classmate Jerry Millstein and I wouldn’t have organized the first ever Thesis Parade in May of 1961, if we hadn’t had such good thesis experiences. The Martin’s remained lifelong friends. They visited Ken, me and our two children at our cablin in the woods in Central Pennsylvania in the early 1970s. Subsequently, I would visit Bob and Roberta at their home and in later years at Williamette Manor whenever I came to Portland. Both Bob and Roberta and their offspring were such good people!! I will never forget them as long as I live. –Priscilla Watson Laws ’61 (Research Professor of Physics, Dickinson College, Carlisle PA)
I first met Dr. Martin in the late 1970’s when I was working as an import auto tech (mechanic) at the Exxon station across the street from Cleveland HS and Bob was driving a lime-green Fiat Strada. While driving Bob home to SE Schiller Street we discovered we had several things in common. During my wife’s (Liz Dally’s) student years at Reed she had been a draft counselor, and Bob and I had great admiration for Richard Feynman. (Bob gave me a copy of “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman”. When Liz and I opened our own shop in 1983 on SE Hawthorne Blvd, Bob followed us over here. I am currently looking for an old photo of Bob, standing with our service advisor under his car on a lift, that we used to have on our Web site. I will post it if I find. I have numerous stories I could tell, but I now want to share a particularly moving event.
By the winter of 2000 Bob had for many years been driving a 4X4 Toyota Tercel station wagon, the perfect vehicle for climbing hills on their property in Mosier, which he did regularly. Suddenly the little engine in this car seized and needed to be replaced. We located a good, low miles, used engine, but with parts and labor, including performing update maintenance on the replacement engine before we installed it, the bill was going to be expensive at a retired prof pay grade. As if by magic ;-), a group of Bob’s former students appeared at our shop with a check covering about 90% of the estimate, with instructions to let them know what the balance would be upon completion. Knowing Bob for as long as I had by that time, somehow I was not surprised at all at his former student’s generosity. The last I knew daughter Laura still had that little Tercel wagon in Port Townsend.
dad instead of being overprotective had a standing offer that if i couldn’t find a safe ride home from folk dancing i could call home & he would come get me ! becuase my parents took us to folk dancing i got a wide apriciation for music , dance & costumes from many cultures at a young age , we danced at Reed , & norse hall & then we started “Family folk dancing nights at Mt. scottt community center & Lewis & Clarke . i didn’t know many other kids whose father folk danced !
Not really a story, just a huge appreciation for Bob, whom I can’t really think of without Roberta. John & I were at Reed only 2 years, 1957-59 (it was clear from the start that John wouldn’t get tenure), and we’d just come from a wonderful but highly stressful student year in France, with a 2-year-old + a new baby. John was slaving over his dissertation so he could support us. I see from the wonderful memories of Bob (above) that he & Roberta had already been married nearly 20 years, but we never felt any age gap between our families. As so many others have said here, the Martin family took John & me, & our little girls, right in to a great deal of their family life. Roberta used to phone me every morning; I’d never had a friend who did that. She was a lifeline for me, taking care of my girls, inviting us for dinner and for trips in their beat-up blue van to interesting places. Bob’s puns and jokes, yet always caring about you too, with that straight, tender look he had…their music..their courage and indomitableness regarding Christopher… altogether, they were a beautiful force of nature! From very little, they created and abundantly shared loaves and fishes.
I was a student of Dr. Martin’s at Lewis and Clark from 1967 through 1971. He was my advisor and mentor.
There a number of little pieces of wisdom I picked up from him that I carried through my career (as an actuary, not a physicist). The value of “gedanken experiments” to grasp a problem; never using both hands when working with a live electrical circuit; trimming a problem down to its most simple form and understanding the basics before moving to more complicated situations. I often invoked the Hydrogen Atom Principle with my actuarial colleagues: we studied the hydrogen atom in hysics for two years because one can’t really understand the higher elements if you don’t understand hydrogen.
Dr. Martin had a wonderful sense of humor and an obvious love for music. He often talked about the link between the great physicist of the past and their love and understanding of music. He, in turn, felt like my link to those great minds of the 30s and 40s.
Our condolences to the Martin family (my wife Carol is a Lewis and Clark graduate who traveled with one of Dr. Martin’s groups to Austria during her time and Lewis and Clark).
Thanks for the photos, too. Even though it might not be a favorite, I like the passport photo from around 1966. That’s right about the time I met Dr. Martin and how I shall remember him,
Mike Akers
I was a Physics major at L&C between 1979 and 1983. Dr. Martin always had time to help answer my homework and lab questions any time his office door was open and he wasn’t teaching a class. I appreciated his ability to break down problems I didn’t understand, into problems I did understand. More than once he would say “Tricked you!” or “See, you really did know the answer after all”. He was also a big advocate of having students work together to cooperatively solve problems, pointing out the value of different ways of looking at problems to come up with a better understanding of classroom material.
The following “song” (guitar serenade) to Dr. Martin was written in chalk on one of the (concrete) classroom walls by one of my fellow Physics students, circa 1980. I think there was maybe a 3rd verse, but this is what I remember.
Hello Dr. Martin, How are you today?
You’re looking very fine
And did I hear you say
That they may come and they may go
But I will always stay.
Hello Dr. Martin, How are you today?
Hello Dr. Martin, You’re looking very fine.
I see you have some tests,
Do you have the one that’s mine?
And did I hear you say
That you gave me an A.
Hello Dr. Martin, How are you today?
I drove recently by the house on SE Schiller where the Martins used to live, where I used to visit often in the 1960’s. Bob and Roberta (back then often one unit in my mind), Craig, Laura, Chris and Doug. The house is tall and is brightly painted. It is, however, much smaller than I remembered. I remember many gatherings in the house with lots of people, musical instruments, singing, food and laughter.
Now, with Bob’s passing, I also recall outings I enjoyed with the Martin family back then, being included in their family. To the coast, the countryside, Argenta, BC, Gilbert and Sullivan productions at the Civic Auditorium, the movie “West Side Story” when it was new, summer visits and potluck meals with Friends. Bob stands tall and lives on in many memories of my formative years.
I was fortunate enough to inherit the position on the Reed College physics faculty that Bob had vacated when he moved from Reed to Lewis & Clark. Got to know him well only after he had retired to Lewis & Clark, during the days when he worked in Jean Delord’s lab, and I in the wood shop across the hall in the sub-basement of the Reed’s A. A. Knowlton Physics Building. We spent many happy hours together, chatting as often about music as about physics. And during the late 70s & early 80s he lived in a tall house just around the corner from me. I recall that one Saturday, as I headed home from Reed, I saw him hiking up the Woodstock hill, stopped, asked him if I could give him a lift, discovered that he had arranged for a pianist to meet him Community Music Center, over on SE Francis, where he looked forward to spending the afternoon singing Brahms lieder. Seemed ever after to me to speak to the quiet essence of Bob.
I was a student at Reed 1956-1960.. The first week I was at Reed I saw a little sign asking for a baby-sitter. I called up Roberta and went over to the house on Schiller and immediately I felt included in their family. I loved them so much. I remember a gathering of students in their living room. Chris and I think Doug were unrolling toilet paper, which was so much fun. An antidote to the stress of Reed. I remember piling into their blue van on Sunday mornings and going to Friends Meeting. I went camping with them on Orcas Island. Bob was always making things. The most amazing was that he and Laura built Laura a little house in their back yard using materials they got free.
Bob and Roberta introduced me to pacifism. I could see how Chris enriched all our lives. After Reed I got married and our families continued our friendship. I feel so grateful to have known Bob and Roberta and Laura and Chris and Craig and Doug.
During the late ’50s and ’60’s our family was with the Martin family often, at Reed College functions where both Bob and George Hay taught, at Quaker Meeting, at various musical gatherings and at Orcas Island, WA, where George and I had a little summer cabin.
In the early “60’s, our family was on sabbatiacal in Nigeria for two years, and the Martin family spent whatever time they could at the Orcas cabin. With a long winding road and ferries to catch it took a full day to drive up from Protland. Once Bob had to return to Portland before the rest of the family, so he caught the little puddle-jumper plane from Eastsound to make the flight south. The plane took off to the north, circled south, and Bob looked out the window to see his wife and kids jumping and waving on the air strip, obviously greatly agitated. Bob got the message and remembered he had the car keys in his pocket. He managed to persuade the pilot to circle again so that he could open the side window and toss out the keys to Roberta and the kids below, saving undue angst among the rest of his family.
The Martin family has remained good friends over all these years.
I went to Lewis and Clark College a year ahead of Dr. Martin’s son, Craig, and we became friends. One thing we ended up doing together was going on the same L&C trip to Yugoslavia and playing guitars and singing with a lot of Russians!
I knew both Dr. and Mrs. Martin through Craig. One of my most favorite memories of my college experience is of a very special weekend I spent with the Martins, who were being the chaperones for a bunch of us L&C students. It was an “Experience in Silence” (or Experiment in Silence).
I remember that it happened the first weekend in February, and I’m pretty sure that it was in 1967. Early that Saturday morning we all piled into a caravan of 3 or 4 cars at L&C and headed to the coast and to Manzanita. The Martins had rented a house there where we could all stay. Rule number 1: as soon as we saw the ocean we had to stop all forms of verbal communication. That was a pretty tall order for me!
It was the most glorious weather I could imagine. As often happens in the beginning of February, we got a preview of Spring; but that year the temperature got up to 70 degrees! It was the best place possible to learn the art of not talking as we had plenty of sand to draw in and communicate with, as well as lots of running around space. For the most part, we were able to keep our voices wordless (I was amazed that it was as easy as it was), but I sure remember laughing and smiling A LOT!
We headed back to Portland on Sunday afternoon, and arrived at L&C in the dark. It seemed like we’d been gone for a week, and I remember that no one talked on the way back. I went to my dorm, where I lived with 3 other girls. They were as noisy and talkative as I’d been before I left, but it was overwhelming for me. As I recall, I went to bed quickly.
I always wished I’d taken a college class from Dr. Martin, but I was way too intimidated by what he taught. But having been around him and Mrs. Martin that weekend was such a gift to me. Mostly I remember him then as kind, gentle, very tolerant, and being very central to everything that happened those two days. That experience taught me to listen more than I talk and to pay attention to my surroundings. It was a very powerful experience and has stayed with me my whole life.
I’m sorry I can’t be at the Memorial to pay my respects, but I’ll be thinking about all of you on Saturday.
I have never forgotten Robert Martin’s performance as the Evangelist in the Bach “St. Matthew Passion” when we students and faculty presented it in the chapel at Reed College in May 1960. It is a demanding, exposed role, and he sang it beautifully and exquisitely in the spirit of the story. J. S. Bach would have enjoyed hearing him. I send my condolences to his family and friends.
Dear Laura, Chris, Doug, Craig, and all the Martin family,
I was sorry not to be able to attend the memorial for Bob in late February. It would have been a pleasure to take part in an active remembrance of his amazing life. Bob and Roberta were among the first people I met when I came to Lewis and Clark in 1978. They remained part of my life in one way or another for over forty years. I have fond memories of many evenings spent at their house, which is where at various times, I met all of you. Bob was my first private voice student in Oregon, twice no less!—first in 1978, then again when I returned to Oregon after some misguided wanderings in 1993. During both stints, I’m pretty sure I learned more from him than he did from me. Although they took me awhile to absorb, his examples of patience and quiet persistence had a strong effect on me. I usually appreciated the fact that Bob took nothing as a given. He weighed all input against his own perceptions and subjected it to his own thoughtful, kind, and fair-minded analysis. In the short run, from the point of view of a voice teacher, his deliberateness could sometimes slow the momentum of what I considered to be my brilliant pacing. But he has long since had the last laugh, as I now teach in what I think of as a Martinesque style. I feel grateful to have known this wonderful man. It’s clear that he touched many lives in a generous and honest way.
Copied fro Reed Magazine, Obituaries, June 2015: https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/june2015/robert-martin-1941.html
Robert L. Martin ’41, Faculty
A picture of Robert Martin
Robert L. Martin ’41, December 23, 2014, in Milwaukie, Oregon. Robert grew up in Oregon and Washington, graduated from Renton High School, and attended Reed on a scholarship. He earned a BA in physics, writing his thesis “Growth of Ionic Crystals” with Prof. A.A. Knowlton [physics 1915–48]. After graduation, he worked as a teaching fellow at the University of Washington and as a graduate assistant at Iowa State College. During World War II, he served as a conscientious objector, working on a land reclamation project near Trenton, North Dakota. Following this service, he resumed physics at the University of Michigan, where he earned an MA and a PhD. His thesis concerned theory and experiments about photographic latent image formation. Robert taught physics at Reed from 1956 until 1962, then taught at Lewis & Clark College until 1985. In retirement, he continued to work on properties of metal in a vacuum with Prof. Jean Delord [physics 1950–88] at Reed and at the Oregon Graduate Center. Robert and Roberta Pruitt met in Seattle in 1936, were married in 1946, and raised a family of four. The couple moved to Willamette View Manor in Milwaukie in 1981, and Roberta died in 2005. Robert was an accomplished musician, beginning his study of the B♭ clarinet and tenor saxophone early in life and later performing tenor vocals in local musicals, operas, and choral groups. Music was important to both Robert and Roberta and was central to their family. Survivors include three sons and a daughter and four grandchildren.