He graduated from the Valley Forge Military Academy. At Princeton he was on the varsity crew and rowed in the Cottage Club boat that competed at Henley. He combined a major in economics and NROTC. After serving as a lieutenant in the Navy during the Korean War, he earned an MBA from Harvard.
Degree in hand, he embarked for Houston and a three-decade career with Conoco. His roles included chairman and managing director of Conoco in the United Kingdom and vice president of international marketing in Houston. After retirement in 1985, he became principal consultant for Fowler International. From 1989 to 1998, Bob was Sweden’s honorary consul general for Texas, for which the king of Sweden knighted him. He moved from Houston to Princeton in 2002.
Bob was an avid tennis player and jogger. He enjoyed summers in Maine with Monica, his wife of 33 years, and traveling to her home country, Sweden. His friends, who spanned many countries, remember him for his sense of humor, optimism, and devotion to family.
Besides Monica, he is survived by four children from his first marriage, William II ’79, Thomas, Robert, and Marya; and seven grandchildren.