Robert A. Burt ’60

Bo died Aug. 3, 2015, while swimming at his weekend home in western Massachusetts, where music, Jacob’s Pillow Dance theater, and exercise were his best-loved extracurricular pursuits. At the time of his death, Bo was the Alexander M. Bickel professor emeritus of law at Yale.

After Princeton, Bo studied law at Oxford, earning a master’s degree in 1962, and at Yale, where he was awarded a law degree in 1964. He went on to serve for four years in all three branches of the federal government, then settled into his academic legal career at Chicago, where he worked for two years, then at Michigan, where he taught for six years, and finally at Yale.

Bo was a distinguished scholar of the law. His published works encompassed the Constitution; issues at the intersection of law, medicine, and culture; and legal history. He served his profession and the community in numerous volunteer activities. One of his favorites was as lead plaintiff in Burt v. Rumsfeld (unsuccessful) concerning the exclusion of gays and lesbians from the U.S. armed forces. Bo also notably appeared in the PBS documentary The Jewish Americans, discussing what it meant to be a Jew at Princeton in the 1950s.

He is survived by his wife, Linda; daughters Anne and Jessica and their spouses; and three granddaughters. The class extends its sympathy to them all.