Robert Edmiston Rohr ’37 died on March 9, 2006, in Canton, Massachusetts.
Born on March 27, 1915, in Lewiston, he prepared for college at the Mount Hermon School in Northfield, MA, and Staples High School in Westport, CT. He also attended Bridgeport Junior College in Connecticut before entering Bowdoin as a transfer student in September of 1934. He joined Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity and, following his graduation in 1937, became a chemist with R.T. Vanderbilt Company in Norwalk, CT. He was also a chemist with the American Chain in Bridgeport, CT, for a year before joining the U.S. Navy in 1941, serving until the end of 1945 and attaining the rank of lieutenant commander. From 1946 until 1950, he was a plan manager with National Dairy Products in Springfield, MA. After serving in the U.S. Navy from 1950 to 1952 in the Korean conflict and attaining the rank of commander, he became an agent for the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company in Hartford, CT. In 1964, he became president of C. Drew and Company in Kingston, MA, and he became the owner of the Martha’s Vineyard Insurance Agency in 1967. He became a Chartered Life Underwriter in 1963 and was also a member of the Million Dollar Round Table and the National Association of Life Underwriters. He served on the Martha’s Vineyard Board of Education, was a trustee of the Dukes County Savings Bank, a senior warden of Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven, MA, and a director of the Atlas Overhead Door Company and Bay State Film Productions. Through the years, he served as chair of the Martha’s Vineyard School Committee, as a tax assessor in Vineyard Haven for many years, as treasurer of Havenside Elderly Housing, and as president of the Old Colony Club in Plymouth, MA. He was a 33rd degree Mason and an emergency medical technician in Martha’s Vineyard until he was 81 years old. In 1946, he married Phyllis Hammarstrong, who died in 1999. Surviving are four sons, Bruce Rohr of Canton, MA, Joseph Rohr of Pembroke, MA, Christopher Rohr of Hilo, HI, and William Rohr of Needham, MA; two daughters, Susan Rohr of North Carolina, and Elizabeth Rohr of West Tisbury, MA; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.