Deceased June 17, 2010
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In Memory
Bob Long, despite being in good health, died suddenly on June 17, 2010. A native of Los Angeles, Bob and I first met early in September 1951 when I picked him up at Logan Airport. In high school, because he was a member of the track team, his nickname was “Rapid Robert.” It seemed to both of us incipient Amherst freshmen that the nickname lent itself to double entendre, so Bob became Longbob for the 60 years I have known him.
During freshman year Stan Kessler, Longbob and I bunked together in a two-man suite in James, but Amherst actually gave us a choice of roommates and abode sophomore year. We chose to stick together and added Hal Kolb; the four of us crammed into a two-man suite in South Hall. Mostly initially the three, and subsequently the four, of us studied apart and pursued different interests. Longbob and Hal Kolb joined the Phi Delt fraternity, while Stan became a DU and I, a Phi Psi.
At Amherst, Longbob majored in economics and was a staff member of the Sabrina magazine. Many of us, including Longbob, joined the Amherst Air Force ROTC unit, and after graduation, he served as a lieutenant in the USAF stationed in Bangor, Maine, where, ironically, his job was sorting and extracting information from punch cards. Years later, Longbob was extremely successful working for IBM for 35 years, selling computer systems to hospitals and to the government.
In 1970, Monita Campbell, of New Orleans, and Longbob married; they had no children. Despite a lifelong tradition of reticence, he and Monita were nevertheless best friends. Even though Longbob was essentially a city dweller, in 1987 they bought a 175-acre ranch outside Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, where, after retirement, they spent summers but winters in an in-town condominium.
Ted Pope ’55