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Robert Lambton Farnsworth

Date of Death: November 11, 2024

Date of Birth: April 8, 1954

Biography:

Robert Lambton Farnsworth died at his home in Greene, ME, on the evening of November 11th, in the company of loved ones. Born in Boston, MA, on April 8th, 1954, the son of Jean G. and William B. Farnsworth, and brother of Elizabeth Farnsworth, Rob grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts and spent summers and holidays with his grandmother, aunt and uncle, and four cousins in Bristol, RI, where he nurtured an enduring love of the sea and seafaring. So strong was Rob’s love of the sea that to him, four wonderful years in Ithaca, NY seemed a sabbatical from his real life near the ocean. Rob and Georgia Nigro married in New Haven, CT in 1977 and moved to Maine in 1983, when Rob joined the faculty at Colby College and Georgia the faculty at Bates College. Rob would later join the Bates faculty. They raised two sons, Nathan and Tobias Farnsworth, in Lewiston.

Rob received his education at Noble and Greenough School, in Dedham, MA, where he formed deep and abiding friendships. Even as Alzheimer’s took his memories, he reminisced with great verve during weekly phone calls with Nobles friend George Colt. He went on to graduate from Brown University in 1976 and received a Masters of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1979. Inspired first by his mother and her English father, and then by his high school buddies, Rob became a poet, producing three books of poetry and enjoying an NEA Fellowship in Poetry in 1990 and a P.E.N. Discovery citation in 2005. He served as poetry editor of The American Scholar for seven years and as resident poet at The Frost Place in Franconia, New Hampshire during the summer of 2006. 

Beloved by his students, some of whom now enjoy distinguished literary careers of their own, Rob was above all a teacher of creative writing. He taught at numerous institutions, spending the last 26 years of his career at Bates College, from which he retired in 2018. He received the Kroepsch Excellence in Teaching Award at Bates on two separate occasions. In addition to his teaching, he brought poetry to libraries, schools, jails, and hospitals, often under the auspices of the Maine Humanities Council.

Rob was a man of many enthusiasms besides poetry. He learned to sail in Narragansett Bay with his cousins, and later, as an adult, hopped a freighter across the Atlantic to Antwerp. With friend Michael Jones, he shared his extensive knowledge of aircraft and military history and a love of dopey movies. He relished many sports, having played soccer and hockey in his youth and tennis as an adult, and cheered exuberantly for the Boston Red Sox, the Boston Bruins, and Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League. He loved jazz, rock, folk, and classical music, and for decades sang with the Maine Music Society. One of his cherished memories, which persisted until he died, was meeting singer-songwriter Richard Thompson at the home of friends Celeste and (the late) Bob Branham. Rob generously shared his passions with others; he was incredulous but undeterred when others did not share them. His kindly wit and spirited laugh enlivened those in his orbit. Family and friends fondly recall his outbursts of “Cheevers” at athletic feats and “Quel fromage!” at failures. One day when his sons were young, they were so shocked to find his spirit dampened by a mountain of paperwork that they produced a video called The Killjoy. Of course, Rob was anything but.

Predeceased by his parents and sister, Rob leaves his wife, Georgia, of 47 years, sons Nathan and Tobias, his aunt, Alys MacLeod, and cousins, Libby MacLeod, Rory MacLeod, Tucker MacLeod, Caroline Sawyer and their partners and children, as well as many dear friends.

To honor Rob’s wishes, there will be no memorial service, but a party is planned for summer. Rob’s family extends enormous gratitude to the many friends who held him close these last four years, and to Andwell, New England Cancer Specialists, and the legion of doctors, nurses, and support personnel who attended to him. Contributions in Rob’s memory may be directed to the Marc Lustgarten Pancreatic Cancer Foundation.