Robert E. Farber ’40

Bob, taking such joy in his retirement after fulfilling careers as a family practice physician and Baltimore health commissioner, died Apr. 7, 2004, of lung disease.

A graduate of Gilman School, Bob followed his brother, Dawson '39, to Princeton, where he majored in chemistry, graduating with high honors. He also was a member of Sigma Xi, the freshman lacrosse team, and Cannon Club. He received a medical degree in 1943 from Johns Hopkins. Bob spent two years in the Navy as a doctor aboard the USS Karnes, an attack transport delivering troops in the Pacific island-hopping campaign. He won two battle stars, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander.

Bob returned to practice in his boyhood home of Sparrow Point, Md., where his father practiced medicine for many years. "A source of pride for him were the 600 babies he delivered over the next seven years," according to his son, Robert Jr. '70. In 1962, after various positions in the Baltimore City Health Dept., the mayor appointed him commissioner, a position he held until his 1975 retirement. Newspaper editorials reported that "infant mortality rates fell 15 percent, and polio, measles, and tuberculosis were virtually eliminated under his administration."

His classmates offer deepest sympathies to Bob's wife of 57 years, Mary Streeter Farber; sons Robert Jr. and Allen; brother Dawson; and two granddaughters.

The Class of 1940