Robert B. Duncan ’57

’57

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One of the Phi Beta Kappa graduates in our class, Bob died of lung cancer Nov. 5, 2022, in Lewes, Del. He came to Princeton from East Orange (N.J.) High School. At Princeton, he was active in Whig-Clio, the marching band, and as house committee chairman of Terrace Club. Majoring in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, he obtained a Poe scholarship to study in France to work on his thesis on “French Policy Toward Algeria.”

Like most of us after graduation, Bob served his country in the military service (Army). He then passed the difficult foreign service examination and joined the State Department. After assignments in Tangier and Rabat, Morocco, he served in Algiers, Algeria. Returning to the U.S., he obtained a master’s degree at Harvard, and then went to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he headed the economic section of the American Embassy and served as a representative to the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa. Again returning to the U.S., Bob attended the War College for a year, followed by assignments in Paris, France, and Bangkok, Thailand, where he was the third-ranking diplomat at the U.S. Embassy. 

During college Bob met Faith Snedeker, and they were married after he completed his military service. Following his Foreign Service career, they retired to Dewey Beach, Del., where Bob continued in church and civic organizations and as a teacher at Southern Delaware Lifelong Learning. He and Faith eventually moved to the Moorings retirement center in Lewes. 

Bob is survived by his wife of 62 years, Faith; his children Susan ’86 and Robert R.; their spouses; and one granddaughter.