In Memoriam: Bob Harnwell

In Memoriam
Patricia Behrens Cameron ’42
Letty Lee Dahme ’50 
Jean Isaacs Martin ’50 
Anna Maybee Miller Epling ’54 
Marjorie Seltzer Stanek ’64 
Karen Takiff ’66

Bob Harnwell
Bob Harnwell, long-standing Friends Select faculty member, passed away in March 2022. From 1963 to 1983, Bob served in a variety of roles, including math teacher, math department chair, and upper school director. In 2012, he was honored by the school and his former students with a Distinguished Teaching Award.

In April, a memorial service was hosted at the Race Street Meetinghouse by Bob’s family, including his three children, Wendy ’79, Ann, and Ted, who was our former director of facilities. Many of Bob’s former students shared their fondness for their late teacher at the Quaker Meeting, which was clerked by Dana Reinhold ’71.

“Bob was an amazing person: extremely smart, kind, dedicated, and possessed of a great sense of humor. He genuinely loved mathematics and conveyed that love to us through his willingness to work with each of us. I was his student from 1968 to 1972, and to be honest, did not fully appreciate his excellence and kindness until I left Friends Select and experienced other math teachers,” shared Joe Ronan ’72. “No discussion of Bob’s life would be complete without mentioning his love of sailing and his generosity in taking a bunch of us city kids along. I’m not really sure how he managed to keep us from capsizing his boat, but he did. Bob is a prime example (note math joke there!) of what makes Friends Select the special place it is.”