Robert A. Kinn '77 - Bowdoin College Obituaries

Scott G Hambley March 16, 2025 at 10:48 pm

Bob’s sister Laurel Kinn Martin posted this on January 16th, 2025. Read to the end and enjoy her memories of Bob which follow. Bob was a very special person and I was lucky to have him in my life since we first met at the Moulton Union mailroom in 1973. Here goes:

Robert Adrian Kinn, 69, died on 15 January, 2025. Born in New Jersey and raised in Westchester County, New York, he spent much of his adult life the Washington, DC area. He was a son, a brother, a good friend, a cinephile extraordinaire and lover of life. Bob was endlessly loyal to the enduring friendships born in the various chapters of his life. His high school friends will remember many, many theater productions, summer hikes in the Adirondacks and the nascent stages of his filmmaking interest. At Bowdoin College he fell in love with Maine, where he spent some time nearly every summer of his life thereafter. He loved Bowdoin, its professors and yes, even the Maine winters. But what we heard most about from that season of his life were his deep friendships. After a stint as a paralegal (always dubbed “parahuman” by Bob) in DC, he moved back north to the Boston area to attend the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. While there he began working at the Center for Space Policy and developed an interest in commercial space. He forged dear and wonderful lifelong friendships with his fellow students and colleagues in Massachusetts. He moved back to DC to work at IntelSat and this morphed into work in the international telecom industry over many years. During the war in Afghanistan he brought his telecom experience to bear as a government contractor, making several trips there. Bob found this work to be the most meaningful of his career. He loved the Afghan people and called many friends. Perhaps it was in this season where “Bob Speak” was formed — sentences filled with acronyms and inside government jargon that bemused his friends and family. Nicknamed “Captain” by friends, Bob loved nothing more than to hold court at a pub or restaurant with friends. Whether he had a Dark and Stormy or a dram of Lagavulin in front of him he was deeply interested in how you were doing and what you were up to. He loved his annual ski trip out West and lamented that he didn’t go more often. Bob loved children and was a wonderful uncle and godfather who was deeply amused by the antics of the kid set. With his white beard, jolly visage and portly presence he delighted in wearing a Santa hat every December and having children gasp when they saw him. His encyclopedic knowledge about film lent itself to regaling anyone who would listen with a film reference for any life scenario.
On an epic, final, five-week trip to Maine during the summer of 2023 friends from every part of his life came to visit. He spent two of those weeks in local hospitals but he would not be denied sitting in his favorite Adirondack chair on the bluff at Bailey Island, looking over the ocean, waves crashing on the cliffs. Though the final years of his life were beset by illness, he endeavored to attend fire pit nights with the Fletcher folk, Bad Movie nights with those who shared his love of film and somewhat twisted sense of humor, and many lunches and coffees with any friend who might spring him from the hoosegow of the hospital/rehab.
We are so grateful to friends and family who supported him in these final months, bringing all manner of contraband into his medical settings. It made things a bit more bearable for him.
Bob is survived by his brother Ian Kinn, his sister Laurel Kinn Martin and her husband Bill, his nieces Kit and Lindsay and his nephew Swift.

And here are Laurel’s memories of Bob:

I lost my eldest brother yesterday. He was sick for the last several years of his life, acutely so for the last two and half. He lived with us for most of the last two years until last April when a hospital admission turned into the hospital/rehab roulette.
He was ten years older and there has never been a day of my life when there wasn’t … Bob. Until now. When I was a child, he was a teenager and I keenly observed as he lived his 70’s teen self. The Beatles, then later the Rocky Horror soundtrack blared from his bedroom. His bookshelves were stacked with sci-fi. He was an avid high school thespian, loved going hiking with friends and had girlfriends! Rounding out the complete 70’s picture, he wore the requisite blue ruffled shirt with his tux to prom. He somehow got stuck taking me to things if my parents were busy: music lessons, my first ballet in New York (I am pretty confident Coppelia was not on his top ten list.) When he was a young adult living in DC he often attended my high school events – always somewhat amused. When he discovered the lacuna in my history knowledge that was much of WW2, horrified, he drew maps on the back of napkin at a restaurant to remedy the situation. He later hosted me in Boston when I was in college and gave me a bit of vision of post college life. In our adult lives we navigated both the joys and sorrows of life as siblings. He was intelligent and caring, had a somewhat sick sense of humor and was a man rich with friends. He adored my three children and they loved him back.
A more formal obituary follows but to my dear brother I raise a glass. The world is emptier and Ian and I will miss you. He and I will be a sibling duo now, but we will miss our little troika.

And here is a message posted by his high school classmate Gregg Hilton:

Bob Kinn, who devoted a large part of his life to helping the women and children of Afghanistan, has died at 69. Many people admired him for making an enormous difference in our world, and his “secret plan” for changing Afghanistan was educated girls. He had a life of consequence with important achievements. He didn’t live to see it, but his fondest hope was for peace, human rights and freedom for the beleaguered people of Afghanistan.
The characteristic I most admired about Bob was modesty. He worked long hours and on weekends but always praised others and never attempted to claim credit for his many accomplishments.
When he first arrived in Kabul girls were not allowed to attend school after the third grade.
During his tenure, 7.5 million girls and young women returned to school and women occupied 25% of the seats in parliament. All of Kinn’s major accomplishments were discarded by the cruel Taliban regime, and now Afghan women are prisoners in their own homes and are forbidden to even look out the window!
Today was a major blow for me and fellow members of the Byram Hills High School class of 1973. Our beloved classmate Bob Kinn has died after a lengthy battle with liver disease. Our class is filled with impressive all-stars, but I often said he was the one I admired and respected the most.
After high school, college and graduate school we both relocated to the Washington, DC area and I was always thrilled when Bob attended my various social gatherings.
He always had remarkable stories and wrote “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had in high school.”
Bob’s favorite vacation destination was the Maine coast and in August 2023 classmates George Kohl, Peter Gallagher, Rob Colby, Barbara Kravetz and Jeff Keffer surprised him with a vacation trip. Bob wrote “It was secretly arranged, and they presented me with a fait accompli of reservations secured at my favorite places, the Bailey Island, Maine Inn and Cook’s Lobster House.” Bob was correct in writing “This may well be my last visit to a place I have loved for 40 years.”
Kinn was a senior staff Pentagon employee for almost two decades and believed “You can accomplish a great deal if you are not focused on claiming credit.”
He jokingly told me his motto was “All credit to the nonparticipants.” He always gave others credit because it was easier to get important projects approved.
Nevertheless, his record of success is undeniable. Over the years, Bob turned down many lucrative corporate offers because he wanted to focus on his major life mission. He was a humanitarian champion and was my cross-country teammate. In 1973, I never would have predicted he would be the top person in our class to promote women’s rights, but that is what happened!
Bob had a BA from Bowdoin (cum laude) and an MALD in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. His professor and faculty advisor, Dr. W. Scott Thompson, was later the president of my organization and we hosted numerous gatherings at his impressive DC home.
Bob’s Pentagon title was Director of the Information and Communications Technology Sector, and his life focus was the Afghan Reconstruction Group.
Kinn devoted 18 difficult years to the building and equipping of Afghan schools. He greatly improved the materials available for schools, and made sure international assistance was sent to the right places.
In addition to education, he also deserves credit for pioneering work to advance health, agriculture and equal rights for women.
Living in the Afghan countryside was never easy, and he had to endure many hardships while battling the bureaucracy. With assistance from the CIA and the U.S. military, Bob arrived soon after the first Taliban regime was overthrown, and there were no 4th grade girls.
Kinn briefed various Congressional delegations and worked nonstop and tirelessly cut through the red tape. The result was over 7.5 million girls were back in school by the time he left, and an extremely high percentage of them had internet access. Online education was always one of his top priorities. Satellite dishes and all music is now forbidden.
Many of the schools he visited and helped construct have now intentionally been burned down, and a sizable number of his friends and co-workers died in the war.
He wrote heartfelt tributes about them. The best description I saw of Kinn’s work came from Shabana Basij-Rasikh who founded a school for Afghan girls but had to burn the academic records when the Taliban returned.
She wrote “I was trying to protect them from a future in which they are forced to become teenage ‘wives’ of Taliban or in which their families would face ferocious retribution if it was discovered they dared to educate their daughters.
“The Taliban knows educated girls are the ones who will pry the fingers of extremism from Afghanistan’s throat. Now the world has looked away from Afghan girls.
“Educated girls grow to become educated women, and educated women will not allow their children to become terrorists. The secret to a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan is no secret at all: It is educated girls.”

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2 Comments → Robert A. Kinn ’77

Sam Popkin February 21, 2025 at 4:15 pm

My sincere condolences to the family and friends of this dear ‘77 Bowdoin classmate. ❤️

Reply ↓
Scott G Hambley March 16, 2025 at 10:48 pm

Bob’s sister Laurel Kinn Martin posted this on January 16th, 2025. Read to the end and enjoy her memories of Bob which follow. Bob was a very special person and I was lucky to have him in my life since we first met at the Moulton Union mailroom in 1973. Here goes:

Robert Adrian Kinn, 69, died on 15 January, 2025. Born in New Jersey and raised in Westchester County, New York, he spent much of his adult life the Washington, DC area. He was a son, a brother, a good friend, a cinephile extraordinaire and lover of life. Bob was endlessly loyal to the enduring friendships born in the various chapters of his life. His high school friends will remember many, many theater productions, summer hikes in the Adirondacks and the nascent stages of his filmmaking interest. At Bowdoin College he fell in love with Maine, where he spent some time nearly every summer of his life thereafter. He loved Bowdoin, its professors and yes, even the Maine winters. But what we heard most about from that season of his life were his deep friendships. After a stint as a paralegal (always dubbed “parahuman” by Bob) in DC, he moved back north to the Boston area to attend the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. While there he began working at the Center for Space Policy and developed an interest in commercial space. He forged dear and wonderful lifelong friendships with his fellow students and colleagues in Massachusetts. He moved back to DC to work at IntelSat and this morphed into work in the international telecom industry over many years. During the war in Afghanistan he brought his telecom experience to bear as a government contractor, making several trips there. Bob found this work to be the most meaningful of his career. He loved the Afghan people and called many friends. Perhaps it was in this season where “Bob Speak” was formed — sentences filled with acronyms and inside government jargon that bemused his friends and family. Nicknamed “Captain” by friends, Bob loved nothing more than to hold court at a pub or restaurant with friends. Whether he had a Dark and Stormy or a dram of Lagavulin in front of him he was deeply interested in how you were doing and what you were up to. He loved his annual ski trip out West and lamented that he didn’t go more often. Bob loved children and was a wonderful uncle and godfather who was deeply amused by the antics of the kid set. With his white beard, jolly visage and portly presence he delighted in wearing a Santa hat every December and having children gasp when they saw him. His encyclopedic knowledge about film lent itself to regaling anyone who would listen with a film reference for any life scenario.
On an epic, final, five-week trip to Maine during the summer of 2023 friends from every part of his life came to visit. He spent two of those weeks in local hospitals but he would not be denied sitting in his favorite Adirondack chair on the bluff at Bailey Island, looking over the ocean, waves crashing on the cliffs. Though the final years of his life were beset by illness, he endeavored to attend fire pit nights with the Fletcher folk, Bad Movie nights with those who shared his love of film and somewhat twisted sense of humor, and many lunches and coffees with any friend who might spring him from the hoosegow of the hospital/rehab.
We are so grateful to friends and family who supported him in these final months, bringing all manner of contraband into his medical settings. It made things a bit more bearable for him.
Bob is survived by his brother Ian Kinn, his sister Laurel Kinn Martin and her husband Bill, his nieces Kit and Lindsay and his nephew Swift.

And here are Laurel’s memories of Bob:

I lost my eldest brother yesterday. He was sick for the last several years of his life, acutely so for the last two and half. He lived with us for most of the last two years until last April when a hospital admission turned into the hospital/rehab roulette.
He was ten years older and there has never been a day of my life when there wasn’t … Bob. Until now. When I was a child, he was a teenager and I keenly observed as he lived his 70’s teen self. The Beatles, then later the Rocky Horror soundtrack blared from his bedroom. His bookshelves were stacked with sci-fi. He was an avid high school thespian, loved going hiking with friends and had girlfriends! Rounding out the complete 70’s picture, he wore the requisite blue ruffled shirt with his tux to prom. He somehow got stuck taking me to things if my parents were busy: music lessons, my first ballet in New York (I am pretty confident Coppelia was not on his top ten list.) When he was a young adult living in DC he often attended my high school events – always somewhat amused. When he discovered the lacuna in my history knowledge that was much of WW2, horrified, he drew maps on the back of napkin at a restaurant to remedy the situation. He later hosted me in Boston when I was in college and gave me a bit of vision of post college life. In our adult lives we navigated both the joys and sorrows of life as siblings. He was intelligent and caring, had a somewhat sick sense of humor and was a man rich with friends. He adored my three children and they loved him back.
A more formal obituary follows but to my dear brother I raise a glass. The world is emptier and Ian and I will miss you. He and I will be a sibling duo now, but we will miss our little troika.

And here is a message posted by his high school classmate Gregg Hilton:

Bob Kinn, who devoted a large part of his life to helping the women and children of Afghanistan, has died at 69. Many people admired him for making an enormous difference in our world, and his “secret plan” for changing Afghanistan was educated girls. He had a life of consequence with important achievements. He didn’t live to see it, but his fondest hope was for peace, human rights and freedom for the beleaguered people of Afghanistan.
The characteristic I most admired about Bob was modesty. He worked long hours and on weekends but always praised others and never attempted to claim credit for his many accomplishments.
When he first arrived in Kabul girls were not allowed to attend school after the third grade.
During his tenure, 7.5 million girls and young women returned to school and women occupied 25% of the seats in parliament. All of Kinn’s major accomplishments were discarded by the cruel Taliban regime, and now Afghan women are prisoners in their own homes and are forbidden to even look out the window!
Today was a major blow for me and fellow members of the Byram Hills High School class of 1973. Our beloved classmate Bob Kinn has died after a lengthy battle with liver disease. Our class is filled with impressive all-stars, but I often said he was the one I admired and respected the most.
After high school, college and graduate school we both relocated to the Washington, DC area and I was always thrilled when Bob attended my various social gatherings.
He always had remarkable stories and wrote “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had in high school.”
Bob’s favorite vacation destination was the Maine coast and in August 2023 classmates George Kohl, Peter Gallagher, Rob Colby, Barbara Kravetz and Jeff Keffer surprised him with a vacation trip. Bob wrote “It was secretly arranged, and they presented me with a fait accompli of reservations secured at my favorite places, the Bailey Island, Maine Inn and Cook’s Lobster House.” Bob was correct in writing “This may well be my last visit to a place I have loved for 40 years.”
Kinn was a senior staff Pentagon employee for almost two decades and believed “You can accomplish a great deal if you are not focused on claiming credit.”
He jokingly told me his motto was “All credit to the nonparticipants.” He always gave others credit because it was easier to get important projects approved.
Nevertheless, his record of success is undeniable. Over the years, Bob turned down many lucrative corporate offers because he wanted to focus on his major life mission. He was a humanitarian champion and was my cross-country teammate. In 1973, I never would have predicted he would be the top person in our class to promote women’s rights, but that is what happened!
Bob had a BA from Bowdoin (cum laude) and an MALD in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. His professor and faculty advisor, Dr. W. Scott Thompson, was later the president of my organization and we hosted numerous gatherings at his impressive DC home.
Bob’s Pentagon title was Director of the Information and Communications Technology Sector, and his life focus was the Afghan Reconstruction Group.
Kinn devoted 18 difficult years to the building and equipping of Afghan schools. He greatly improved the materials available for schools, and made sure international assistance was sent to the right places.
In addition to education, he also deserves credit for pioneering work to advance health, agriculture and equal rights for women.
Living in the Afghan countryside was never easy, and he had to endure many hardships while battling the bureaucracy. With assistance from the CIA and the U.S. military, Bob arrived soon after the first Taliban regime was overthrown, and there were no 4th grade girls.
Kinn briefed various Congressional delegations and worked nonstop and tirelessly cut through the red tape. The result was over 7.5 million girls were back in school by the time he left, and an extremely high percentage of them had internet access. Online education was always one of his top priorities. Satellite dishes and all music is now forbidden.
Many of the schools he visited and helped construct have now intentionally been burned down, and a sizable number of his friends and co-workers died in the war.
He wrote heartfelt tributes about them. The best description I saw of Kinn’s work came from Shabana Basij-Rasikh who founded a school for Afghan girls but had to burn the academic records when the Taliban returned.
She wrote “I was trying to protect them from a future in which they are forced to become teenage ‘wives’ of Taliban or in which their families would face ferocious retribution if it was discovered they dared to educate their daughters.
“The Taliban knows educated girls are the ones who will pry the fingers of extremism from Afghanistan’s throat. Now the world has looked away from Afghan girls.
“Educated girls grow to become educated women, and educated women will not allow their children to become terrorists. The secret to a peaceful and prosperous Afghanistan is no secret at all: It is educated girls.”

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2 Comments → Robert A. Kinn ’77

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