The December issue of The Suffield Observer came into your mailboxes on the same day the Observer lost another member of the Suffield community who had been essential to both our success and the mission of our local paper. Bob Warren was the longest tenured chairman of our organization and led us with a wise and poised demeanor.
Bob volunteered at the Observer from its inception, serving on the editorial board of directors of the first issue. He later became chairman and served until mid-2012. He started the much enjoyed column “Food for Thought.” It was his desire to bring a bit of the world beyond Suffield into our local paper for our readers’ enjoyment. Please be sure to read our tribute on page 7 where the “Food for Thought” column has graced our pages since May, 2005. Besides this column, over the years, Bob contributed sixty-two articles, always bringing meaningful and vital information to the readership. Bob’s wife Margery has been his side-kick in a beautiful sixty year marriage. Margery is our co-manager organizing our proofreading sessions each edition. We are grateful for her continued contributions to the Observer.
In November of 2014, the board of directors at the Observer honored Bob with a scholarship in his name to be awarded to a senior in high school who resides in Suffield. We have honored two students to date with the Robert O.Y. Warren III scholarship.
The Observer is not the only Suffield organization to benefit from his commitment to better our community. Bob served on the Town’s Ethics Commission, as president of the Calvary Episcopal Church preschool and was a member of the Rotary Club. Bob was honored with the Paul Harris Fellow Award in June of 2013.
I, like all my fellow Observer volunteers, will miss Bob’s guidance, his diplomacy, and his thoughtful contributions. I had the pleasure of knowing Bob before working at the Observer and was fortunate enough to be his tennis partner in a mixed double tournament years ago. He was a gracious and skilled partner, much more seasoned than I, but we both shared a competitive and tenacious nature on the court. Bob had the grace and poise of an all-star in every endeavor he undertook. The funny thing is I don’t recall if we won or lost that tennis match . . . but I am sure of one thing, Bob Warren was a winner of a human being!