Bob died peacefully in his sleep Nov. 30, 2020, in Los Alamitos, Calif.
A graduate of the Nichols School in Buffalo, N.Y., Bob played on Princeton’s freshman soccer team and was a sports photographer for The Daily Princetonian. He majored in psychology and was a member of Cap and Gown.
After graduation Bob pursued freelance photography for two years before earning a master’s degree in media technology at the University of Texas, Austin. There he met Debbie Fielder; they married, moved to the Los Angeles area, and raised two children.
Bob became a broadcast studio engineer for several large media companies and conglomerates. In 1992 he bought a Los Alamitos-based independent security and access-control business, which he sold to key employees in 2017.
For 35 years Bob was an adjunct professor in media arts at Los Angeles Valley College. One of his students subsequently hired Bob to do freelance assignments for ABC News, a third occupation he enjoyed. In 2017 Bob took over writing the Class of 1942’s PAW Class Notes after the death of his father, D. Bruce Merrifield ’42.
Bob is survived by his two children, Matthew and Amanda; his mother, Paula; his brothers, Bruce ’72 and Marshall ’82; and his sister-in-law, Virginia Russell Merrifield ’84.