Necrology

Robert Mason Colley '66

Oct. 15, 1942-Aug. 20, 2023

Robert Mason Colley ’66, P’19 died on Aug. 20, 2023, at his home in Syracuse, N.Y. Born on Oct. 15, 1942, in Buffalo, he came to Hamilton from Williamsburg, N.Y., having graduated from Hamburg Central High School. On the Hill, he majored in English and was a member of Sigma Phi fraternity.

His approach to his studies was initially decidedly casual, leading Dean Sidney Wertimer to admit him to the “Underachievers’ Club.” Bob was instructed to withdraw and, when he found his purpose, to return. Bob left at the end of the spring semester in 1963. Thereafter, as he stated in a class note in 2010, he found his focus first by working in a bank (an experience he found “awful”) and then, having avoided the draft, by joining the Army Reserves (an experience he found even worse than banking). He was “excused” from officer training due to his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War, and then he was excused from military service altogether. 

This dose of reality seemed to work. He returned to the College at the start of the spring semester in 1965 and joined the Class of 1966. As he recalled in the 25th reunion yearbook: “I was so glad to be back on the Hill that I actually got good grades my senior year.” He was also admitted to Nous Onze, later recalling with pleasure the meetings held with its adviser, Professor Robert Barnes “Bobo” Rudd. He also worked on the staff of The Hamiltonian, rising to the position of assistant editor his junior year.

Following graduation, Bob worked for Scribner’s publishing company but soon left to pursue graduate studies in English at Syracuse University. Withdrawing from that program, he took a series of jobs teaching English in local high schools and community colleges, in a sense making his way toward what would prove to be the focus of his later academic career: adult education. 

While an adjunct professor teaching a course in business ethics, he also became director of the university’s independent study degree programs in a variety of disciplines designed to serve individuals in mid-career. After earning a master’s degree in the philosophy of education in 1984, and having begun doctoral studies from which he later withdrew, Bob developed college programs for various corporations, the military (including for service personnel engaged in Operation Desert Shield in 1991), and even a maximum-security prison. By 2006, he had risen to become associate dean of Syracuse’s University College, overseeing research and communications.

Following an earlier marriage and one extended relationship, Bob met Katryn P. Hansen, who was affiliated with the School of Architecture at Syracuse and would later become its assistant dean. They were married in 1995, and a year later their daughter, Maura, was born.

Bob had a longstanding interest in the arts and in 2007 established Stone Canoe, a periodical devoted to the work of writers and artists residing in Central New York. Initially published by the university, it was subsequently sponsored by the Downtown Writers Center of the Greater Syracuse YMCA. 

In 2012, following his retirement, Bob and a friend formed what he would later describe as “a boutique publishing company,” Standing Stone Books, devoted to the publication of poetry, fiction, and design. Having developed skills as a landscape and portrait photographer, Bob published three collections of photographs, including Scotland and the Hebrides (2016). Images of Cape Cod appeared in the other two books. He also exhibited his work in galleries on the Cape as well as in several in the vicinity of Syracuse.

He was also an avid tennis player and devoted to film.

Beyond these occupations, Bob was also an active member of several arts organizations including the Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts in Ithaca, N.Y., the Ithaca City of Asylum, which provides shelter for writers and artists at risk of persecution in their countries of origin, the Community Folk Art Center in Syracuse, and the YMCA of Central New York Y-Arts, an organization providing financial aid to children and youth to study music, writing, and the visual arts.

Bob’s memories of Hamilton are dominated by those of the camaraderie he felt with other students. Professors who were particularly memorable included Paul Parker, Edwin Barrett, Peter Berek, Thomas Johnston, and Edgar B. Graves. Almost inevitably, he also recalled trips to Wells and Skidmore, houseparty Sunday morning gin-and-juice parties at Theta Delta Chi, and “trying to stay one step ahead of Dean Wertimer.” 

Bob served on his class’s committee and reunion gift committee, and offered his services to the Career Center’s volunteer program.

Robert M. Colley is survived by his wife and his daughter, Maura Colley ’19.

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