Robert C. Schwarze Jr. ’84

Bob died Nov. 3, 2020, of natural causes in Mountain Home, Idaho. He was 58.

He attended Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Ill. At Princeton he found his passion in the air, majoring in mechanical and aerospace engineering and becoming an Air Force ROTC cadet. He played freshman football, was on the track team, and joined Cottage Club. Like everything else Bob did in life, he excelled as a student, an athlete, and a friend. He was loyal to the core to his Princeton friends, and never merely a spectator.

Bob spent 27 years in the Air Force, retiring in 2011 as a colonel. In the first Persian Gulf war, he earned two Distinguished Flying Crosses for playing a crucial role planning and coordinating the destruction of Iraqi air defenses while also executing missions as a weapons officer in an F-4 Wild Weasel. Of the 33 combat sorties in which he escorted coalition aircraft over hostile territory, all returned safely. He later flew F-15E’s and led the 68th Electronic Warfare Squadron. He was chief of staff of the 7th Air Force in Korea upon retirement.

Although he bled red, white, and Air Force blue, he was a Tiger through and through. The class extends its sympathy to his beloved wife, Brenda; stepson David Kellerman; grandson Jack Kellerman; parents Robert and Lucille Schwarze; sister Marybeth; brother Jay; and their families.