Robert S. Freeman ’44 died January 13, 2011.
(view alumni profile - Log-in required)
ROBERT FREEMAN ’44
On Jan. 13, 2011, the class lost a talented and contributing member, Roberts Sumner Freeman of Newtown Square, Pa. Following an operation for lung cancer, he developed pneumonia and never recovered.
Bob prepared at the Haverford School before entering Amherst. He majored in mathematics and joined Delta Tau Delta. Service in the U.S. Navy on a transport ship took him to the Pacific and included the invasion of Okinawa and carrying occupying troops to Nagasaki.
He was married in 1947 to Dorothy Macfarlan. In addition to his wife, he is survived by daughters Lisa and Robin and two grandsons.
Bob taught mathematics in middle school for 30 years, but his “extracurricular” activities were far-ranging. He loved to conceive of and build a wide variety of things, from a tree house to a stone wall. He entered and won competitively for his miniature rooms complete with furniture.
With meticulous planning, Bob traveled extensively, spending one year driving his family from Scandinavia to Sicily and everywhere in between. More recently, he organized backpacking trips to the White Mountains and the Rockies with students and fellow teachers.
Bob loved to volunteer and help and encourage people. After retiring from teaching, he tutored in a South Philadelphia school and supported people with AIDS; he did the AIDS walk for years. In Colonial costume, he welcomed school children at the Octagonal Schoolhouse on the Dunwoody property in Newtown Square, where he and Doty took up retirement after selling their farm home in Malvern, Pa.
In May 2009, he took the train from Philadelphia to Amherst for our 65th Reunion. He will be missed by those who knew and appreciated him.
—James Hund ’44