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8/30/46 - 5/20/21
Fellow classmate Gerlad Young posted on the Forum that Robert had died of cancer in the spring of 2021. I emailed Gerald for more information because I could not find an obituary. Gerald said he did not think Robert had an obituary. Gerlad was kind enough to tell me what he knew about Robert.
Here’s what I know. Robert got his BA in English at the University of Houston in 1968, and then he taught English at Galena Park High School for 2 or 3 years. Then he moved to the Netherlands for seven years. When he came back, he got his masters in ESL at Columbia University in New York City. Robert played the piano and the organ, and he was the organist at United Presbyterian Church in Middletown, New York State. They eventually moved to New Jersey, and that’s where he lived about the last 10 years of his life. His parents passed away in the early 2000s, but has a younger brother who still lives in Houston. I don’t even know his name, but he was a Waltrip graduate.
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Pat Clooney '67 (King)
Robert was our second cousin but we didn't know of his passing until I read Gerald Young's post on the Waltrip '64 Message Forum. I contacted Robert's brother, Daniel Clooney, who told me Robert lived in Hackensack, NJ & died May 20, 2021 of lung cancer. Robert NEVER smoked. He was diagnosed as stage 4 & had chemo & radiation treatments for about a year. He was 75 and there is no obituary. Daniel is a Waltrip graduate of Class of '69. Thank you to Gerald - for all the information you provided.
Beverly Hengst (Allen)
Thanks to Gerald Young and Pat Clooney for providing the information on Robert.
Gerald Young
Robert and I didn't even know each other at Waltrip. We met when we were both students at the University of Houston. We reconnected in the early 2000s through this website! We were constantly amazed at how many friends we had had in common, and yet we saw each other so seldom while we both still lived in Houston. That was what brought us together--our both being "exiles" from Houston.
When Robert came back from the Netherlands (he was fluent in Dutch by the way), he went to Columbia University in New York and ended up staying in that part of the country. I got my Ph.D. at the University of Florida, where I also met my wife, and after I got a position teaching foreign languages at a college in Florida, that's where I stayed. Robert's family and mine were still in Houston, so our connections with H-Town run deep.
During all those years, he and I emailed several times a week. His cancer came on all of a sudden. He started chemo, and he would write to me about it. I just assumed it was working. Then one day I got an email from him saying that the chemo hadn't worked, and that his doctor was setting him up in the Hospice Program. From then until he passed away was about two months. I still miss him. I constantly catch myself thinking after something interesting has happened, "I'm going to have to write Robert about this!"