Necrology

Robert Warriner Goggin '65

Jun. 16, 1943-Aug. 17, 2024

Robert Warriner Goggin ’65 died in Boston on Aug. 17, 2024. Born in Canastota, N.Y., on June 16, 1943, he grew up in South Burlington, Vt. At the end of his sophomore year in high school, his family moved first to North Haven, Conn., and to Wethersfield, Conn., the year after. It was from Wethersfield High School that he came to Hamilton. On the Hill, he was a member of the Emerson Literary Society and majored in English literature. 

Bob was on The Spectator staff as a freshman and worked on The Hamiltonian as a junior. He was a member of the Outing Club all four years, serving as its vice president in both his junior and senior years. As film was a subject of great interest to him, he joined the Kinokunst Gesellschaft film society during his third year and became its director as a senior.

Upon graduating, Bob prepared for what turned out to be a 40-year career as a high school English teacher by completing courses for teacher certification in Massachusetts. In 1966, he joined the English faculty at Newton (Mass.) South High School and remained there until his retirement. 

His interest in film continued undiminished, and in 1973 he earned a Master of Science degree in the subject from the School of Public Communications at Boston University. For the rest of his career, both literature and film were his specialties, and, whenever appropriate, he integrated film into his English classes. 

Bob retired to Rockport, Maine, but not before earning a second master’s degree in the Division of Continuing Education at Harvard University. The subject of his thesis was Thomas Edward (T. E.) Lawrence (1888-1935), better known as Lawrence of Arabia.

Bob left public education and remained a man of diverse interests in ostensible retirement. History, film, music, and literature were his “indoor” preoccupations that resulted in, among other things, a large personal library. Outdoors, he hiked, climbed mountains — he was a member of the Appalachian Mountain Club — and sailed out of Camden, Maine, where he moored a sailboat. His interest in film also led him to organize discussion groups on the subject at his church in Massachusetts as well as at the retirement community in Camden to which he later moved. He was a regular contributor to the Hamilton Fund.

Bob W. Goggin is survived by his sister.

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