Robert Tufts ’77

Bob died Oct. 4, 2019, after a 10-year fight against multiple myeloma. His wife, Suzanne, and his daughter, Abigail, were with him.

Bob made a mark at Princeton as a lefty pitcher. He was also a broadcaster for WPRB and a member of Cottage Club. Drafted by the San Francisco Giants his senior year, he pitched in the minors until 1981, when the Giants called him up. They traded him to the Kansas City Royals in 1982. Bob left baseball in 1983, enrolling at Columbia University and graduating with an MBA in finance in 1986.

He worked on Wall Street for 20 years in futures and foreign exchange and in domestic equities. He then taught business courses at various New York schools and was hired by Yeshiva University in New York in 2011 as a clinical assistant professor at the Sy Syms Schools of Business. Bob was named the Lillian F. and William L. Silber Professor of the Year for 2017-2018.

In 2009 Bob was diagnosed with cancer, sharing his battle publicly on Twitter. During this time he co-founded “My Life Is Worth It,” a nonprofit organization to advocate for patients and doctor access and medical innovation. Bob became a well-known advocate writing for publications from the Huffington Post to the Journal of the American Medical Association. He also co-authored an academic study published by the Goldwater Institute in May 2018.

Bob is survived by Suzanne ’77, Abigail, mother Barbara, brother William III, sister Sandra Fullerton, and many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and cousins. He will also be missed by his teammates, students, and friends. I think that everyone who knew Bob will always carry the image of him with that warm welcoming smile for those he knew and those he was always ready to meet.