Robert R. Bowie ’31

Bob Bowie, ’31’s last surviving classmate, died Nov. 2, 2013, in Towson, Md., of respiratory failure.

Born in Baltimore, Bob graduated from Gilman School. At Princeton he was an editor of the Prince and a member of Tower. He roomed all four years with Henry Hilken and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Following Harvard Law School, Bob joined his father’s law firm and then served with distinction in the Army during World War II as deputy to Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy in postwar Germany.

Bob’s distinguished career included teaching at Harvard, where in 1958 he founded the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs; helped to forge U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War; and served in senior positions with the State Department and the CIA. He also authored several books on foreign policy. A member of John Kenneth Galbraith’s “Eastern foreign-policy establishment,” Bob’s New York Times obituary described him as “an incisive and influential analyst … whose advice was valued” by presidents, secretaries of state, and other government leaders.

In 1944 he married Mary Chapman, who predeceased him. He is survived by his sons, William and Robert Jr., and their families, and three grandchildren.