Robert V. Seltzer

Robert “Bob” Seltzer died on July 20, 2019 at the age of 74. He had been given the opportunity to have final visits with his family and others he loved and, as a result, was able to accept his death gratefully.

Bob had a chaotic professional resume. He started off as an academic and spent 12 years coaching debate, publishing a few inconsequential articles, and becoming a tenured Associate Professor. Then he took a strange turn and got involved in politics. Over almost 20 years he ran campaigns and served as either the Chief of Staff or Legislative Director for four Democratic United States Senators. In an attempt to regain his sanity and his soul, he opened a used bookstore that ran for three years. Then his wife, Helen, decided to take advantage of some opportunities she had earned and took a job as the CEO of a start up in New York, where Bob found work running a gun control group. Helen then took another CEO position in Salt Lake and Bob returned to academia as the Assistant to the President of Westminster College. They both retired, happily, about 10 years ago.

If his professional life was full of stops and starts, his personal life was a model of stability. He and Helen have been married for over 52 years. Their two daughters, Catherine and Jennifer, were a joy to raise and a delight to watch grow into mature adults. They married men who Bob and Helen were honored to welcome into the family (Dave Limbrick and Andrew Stitt). And even more impressive they have produced 4 practically perfect grandchildren (Owen and Lily Limbrick and Robert and Samuel Stitt) who have given their grandparents great pleasure.

Bob was fortunate enough to have a good life. In lieu of flowers or donations, take some time to be with your friends and family and enjoy life.

Addendum:
Bob wrote his own obituary. He did it out of a perhaps-unusual appreciation for the form. (He loved reading them in this paper each morning.) He was also hoping to spare his family one more task during a time he knew would be difficult for us. That was my husband and our father. It was also very much in his nature to write a piece as self-deprecating as this obituary. If his family had written it, we would have put a lot more emphasis on his achievements. Bob was an academic, trained in thinking through complex problems, but by profession, he was a writer: he could take those complicated issues and articulate them in prose that was clear and often thrillingly elegant. He had a sharp sense of justice, a fact that was evident in his work and in his daily interactions.

Bob was intensely loyal to the people who interested him, and one of the silver linings of his loss is that we have heard stories from people he had helped over years. He was a listener—a deep listener—and then a do-er. When you were with him, you knew you mattered to him. (It should probably be acknowledged that, on the other hand, Bob did not suffer fools gladly. As a rule though, his exceeding politeness meant that a fair number of those folks rarely noticed. It was a marvel to watch them dodge a bullet they never saw.)

Bob says here that he had a good life, but he also made the lives of so many of us better. The world is a whole lot dimmer without him in it.