Robert Curvin *75

Robert Curvin, a scholar and activist devoted to achieving racial equality and social justice, died Sept. 29, 2015, of multiple myeloma. He was 81.

After Army service, Curvin graduated from Rutgers in Newark in 1960 and became a welfare caseworker. He co-founded Newark’s chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). During the 1967 Newark turmoil, he worked to temper what he called a rebellion and not a riot. In 1975 he earned a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton.

In his 2014 book, Inside Newark: Decline, Rebellion and the Search for Transformation, he analyzed Newark’s tumultuous change after World War II as it went from two-thirds white to two-thirds black within a decade. Hopeful but realistic about Newark’s future, Curvin was frank about his disappointment in the city’s mayors, but believed in education.

In 1977, Curvin joined the editorial board of The New York Times and served for nearly six years. He then held senior positions at the Ford Foundation, the Greentree Foundation, the New School, Fund for the City of New York, and the Bloustein School at Rutgers. He was a trustee of Princeton University from 1977 to 1981 and a member of the ABPA.

He is survived by Patricia, his wife; two children; and three grandchildren.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.