Robert Mathews Merrill ’50 died on January 29, 2009, in Sandwich, Massachusetts, after a brief illness.
He was born on May 24, 1925, in Winchester, Mass. He graduated from Reading (Mass.) High School in 1942, spent four years in the Navy as an aviation cadet, then one term at the Newman Preparatory School in Boston before enrolling at Bowdoin, where he was a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. He worked as a sales engineer for industrial electrical firms and as principal of R.M. Merrill & Company, sales and manufacturing. After retiring in 1990, he was a longtime volunteer at Heritage Museums & Gardens and at the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Cape and Islands. He is survived by Dorothy Costello Merrill, his wife of 54 years; two sons, Robert E. Merrill and Donald R. Merrill; a daughter, Linda M. Merrill; and two granddaughters.