Robert H. Edwards ’57

Scholar, oarsman, university president, and humanitarian, Bob died Nov. 30, 2025.

A native of London, England, he came to Princeton from Deerfield Academy. At Princeton, he majored in English and joined Colonial Club, where he served as secretary-treasurer and played IAA basketball, and rowed varsity crew. Senior year he roomed in adjacent single rooms with Don Baker, Farnie Collins, Irv Flinn, and Peter Paine. He also maintained a lifelong friendship with Kim Townsend.

Bob earned law degrees at Corpus Christie College of Cambridge University in England and at Harvard. He worked for the Ford Foundation, which sent him to Africa to help write legislation and development plans for the territory that became Botswana.

In 1966, he married Ellen Turnbull, a Wellesley graduate. In 1968, he and his wife and first child, Elizabeth, moved to Pakistan, where he again authored development plans in economics, education, and agriculture. There his second child, Daphne, was born. In 1972, he returned to New York as head of the African and Middle East programs for the Ford Foundation.

In 1977, Bob’s third child, Nicholas, was born, and Bob became president of Carleton College in Minnesota. Later he married Blythe Bickel and became president of Bowdoin College in Maine. His thoughtful notes in our major Reunions yearbooks are well worth reading.

Bob’s wives predeceased him. He is survived by his three children and their families, and his sister, Barbara, wife of Paul Hicks ’58.