Robert Schuyler Lesher, Jr. ’65 died on August 23, 2004, in Washington, DC.
Born there on January 10, 1944, he prepared for college at East Aurora High School in New York and became a member of Zeta Psi Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following his graduation in 1965, he served in the U.S. Navy for four years, attaining the rank of lieutenant. In 1971, he received a master of business administration degree from Columbia University and joined Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. in New York City, which later became KPMG Peat Marwick, where he became a partner and worked in the Boston area as well as in New York. He moved to Washington in 1991 as the first director of financial systems at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, where he led government-wide initiatives for financial management reform. In 1995, he became the deputy chief financial officer at the Department of the Interior. His work there was recognized with a presidential Senior Executive Service Distinguished Rank Award in 2001 and a presidential Meritorious Rank Award in 1997. He was a member of the Association of Government Accountants, from which he received several awards for financial management. Surviving are his wife, Joanne Freund Lesher, whom he married in 1984; a daughter, Rebecca Anne Lesher of Washington; a son, Robert Schuyler Lesher III, also of Washington; his mother, Marjorie Griffin Lesher of East Aurora, NY; a sister, Kathryn L. Davis of East Aurora; and two brothers, J. Griffin Lesher of Washington and Dr. Charles E. Lesher of Davis, CA.