Robert L. Belknap ’51

Bob was born Dec. 23, 1929, in New York, the son of Dorothy Lamont and Chauncey Belknap 1912. He attended Buckley and Phillips Exeter and majored in English at Princeton, graduating summa cum laude. He roomed with Allen Dulles, Jim Rose, Ben Murray, Dick Weidenbacher, and Art Windels. Bob belonged to Quadrangle Club and went out for track.

Following graduation, he studied Russian in Paris. After a two-year stint in the Army, he obtained his master’s degree in Russian from Columbia. In 1957, Bob began teaching Russian language and literature there, and in 1960, he earned his Ph.D. He was dean of students in 1969 following the student riots at Columbia and was widely credited with bringing calm back to the campus. In later years, he was director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia and chair of the Slavic languages and literature department.

Bob died of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis March 17, 2014. He is survived by his wife, Cynthia Hyla Whittaker, a historian of Russia; daughters from his previous marriage, Lydia Duff ’81, Ellen Belknap, and Abigail Krueger; stepchildren Erica and Andrew Whittaker; his sisters, Louise Carter and Barbara Belknap; and his nephew, Giles Carter ’80.