Robert grew up in Rockland County, NY. His father was a New York State Palisades Park police sergeant and the family lived within Rockland Lake State Park where Robert developed a lifelong love of nature and caring for birds. Robert graduated from Congers (NY) High School in 1951. He earned an Associate’s Degree in retail business management in 1953 from Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica. He served in the U.S. Army in the Korean War from 1954-1955. After discharge, he married his high school sweetheart, Gloria Foss, on September 16, 1956. Later, while raising his family and working fulltime, he earned his BS in Economics in 1962 from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, N.J. A career accountant, Robert worked for American Cyanamid in New Jersey, Maryland and later on Long Island. He then moved the family to Pulaski, NY to work at Schoeller Technical Papers. In 1972 the family moved to Perry, where Robert worked as CFO for the former Robeson Appliance Div. of Van WYCK International. He then worked for 22 years as comptroller at the Morton Salt Company plant in Silver Springs, NY, before retiring in 1998. For more than 60 years, Robert devoted his spare time to multiple leadership roles in the Knights of Columbus, starting new councils in Hauppauge, NY, and Perry, and serving in its Fourth Degree Color Corps. He was a member of the Bishop McQuaid Assembly based in Rochester NY. Robert also served together with his wife Gloria as a team couple for many years with Worldwide Marriage Encounter, speaking at retreats to hundreds of couples in the greater Rochester area, and on the Bishop’s Pro-Life Committee for the Diocese of Buffalo. He served as a 4-H Club leader, parish council member, church lector and extraordinary minister. In 1976 he ran unsuccessfully for Wyoming County Treasurer.
In addition to his wife Gloria (Foss) of Perry, he is survived by four children Laura (Bill) Pentland of Rocky Hill, CT, Patrick (Diane) Brennan of Stratford, CT, Kelly (Romualdo) DeSouza of Bloomington, IN, Janel (Alfred) Tillmann of Hyattsville, MD; eight grandchildren Bridget and Jonathan Brennan, both of Brooklyn, NY, Sarah Pentland of Providence, RI,and Emily Pentland of Rocky Hill, CT, Zarya DeSouza of Bloomington, IN, and Joshua, Ava and Nathaniel Tillmann, all of Hyattsville, MD, and cousin, Betty Ann Brady of Orlando, FL.
There are no calling hours. A Memorial Mass will be celebrated 11 a.m., Monday, Oct. 12, at St. Isidore’s Roman Catholic Church (St. Joseph’s Church), 71 Leicester St., Perry. Entombment will be at the columbarium of St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Perry.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in Robert’s name to the Letchworth Park Nature Center, 1 Letchworth State Park, Castile, NY 14427, or online at www.letchworthnaturecenter.org. For more information please call (585) 237-2626 or to leave a message of condolence please visit www.eatonwatsonfuneralhome.com. Arrangements completed by Eaton-Watson Funeral Home, LLC. 98 North Main Street Perry, New York 14530.
