Robert Washington Obituary

Robert Earl Washington ("Bob") of Gulph Mills, PA, passed away peacefully on the morning of Monday, February 17,2025, after a long but valiant struggle with congestive heart failure.  

Born on April 8, 1941, in West Point, Mississippi, to the late Earnest D. Washington, Sr., and the late Flora Lee Dobbins, Bob grew up in a working class community in East St. Louis, Illinois.  At Lincoln High School in East St. Louis, Bob was a tackle on the school’s championship football team, a formative experience in his life.  After High School, Bob moved to New York City, first working at different trades and enjoying a brief career in college football and subsequently earning his bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Columbia University.  Upon graduation from Columbia, he spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, teaching English and Psychology to Afghan medical students.  He completed his graduate work in Sociology (Master’s and PhD) upon his return from Afghanistan, at the University of Chicago

Bob spent his academic career at Bryn Mawr College where he taught for 49 years, starting in 1971 and retiring in 2020, and where he was able to pursue his varied intellectual and humanitarian interests in race relations, social and economic development, the sociology of sports and the sociology of deviance.   He also had the opportunity to study and teach in some of these same areas of sociology in Kenya, South Africa and South Asia.  Beloved by students at Bryn Mawr, he in turn believed that nothing was more enriching, or more captivating, than the students at Bryn Mawr College.

Bob leaves behind his partner Rose A. Makofske, an older brother, Ernest D. Washington, Jr., a younger. Brother Gerold E. Washington, three nephews, Craig Washington, Corey Washington and Kyle Washington, and three nieces, daughters of his late brother Raymond L. Washington, Deborrah Washington, Uvalda Anderson and Yolanda Dickerson.

A Memorial Service in celebration of Bob’s rich and productive life will be held in late May at Bryn Mawr College.  

Donations in his name may be sent to the Bryn Mawr College Scholarship Fund.