He was an unwavering son of Minnesota, coming to us from DeLaSalle High School and returning to the University of Minnesota Law School immediately after our Princeton graduation. At Princeton he played hockey, served on the politics department advisory committee while writing his thesis for Gary Orfield, and — perhaps most notably — became one of the great Commons captains in memory; whenever you got on line and realized everyone ahead of you was mysteriously convulsing, Bob’s humorous narrative powers and social observations were in play.
Using his verbal gifts for more than 40 years to build the small firm Arthur Chapman into one of Minnesota’s most prestigious litigation specialists, Bob was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2010. But we recall most his direction, along with president Mickey Pohl, of the raucous class meetings at our major reunions, with virtually everyone ending up skewered and debased but unoffended in something of a comic miracle.
Bob will be deeply missed by his wonderful family: wife Susan, daughters Louise Dann and Sarah Jane Kettering, and his seven younger siblings. Their loss is hard to adequately process, except perhaps in Pohl’s contention that Bob is now telling Henny Youngman jokes (among his freshest) to St. Peter, with Youngman himself laughing loudest.