Robert T. Strommen ’56

Bob died June 19, 2015, after several years of declining health.

He was born in Pittsburgh and graduated from Turtle Creek High School. At Princeton, he majored at the Woodrow Wilson School and was a member of Campus Club. After graduation Bob entered Union Theological Seminary and became a minister in the United Church of Christ. 

He was quickly drawn to the emerging civil-rights and social-justice movements of the 1960s, culminating in several trips to Mississippi to help register black citizens to vote. He left the parish for a succession of positions in the church, focusing on political and social justice.

After his retirement in 2000, Bob continued to be active in social-justice causes, with particular passion for fairness in labor practices and equality for LGBT people. With the Cleveland branch of Jobs with Justice, he fought for a living wage for workers. He and his wife, Joyce, were constant fixtures at any protest, hearing, or event where equality for gay, lesbian, and transgendered individuals was being promoted and fought for.

Bob is survived by Joyce, his wife of 58 years; their children Erik, Beth, Gayle, and Ingrid; and three grandchildren.