Robert A. Obar

Robert Alan Obar August 27, 1957-April 5, 2025

Robert Alan Obar was born August 27, 1957 in New York City and grew up in Flushing Meadows, Queens New York.  Basketball, baseball, and Boy Scouts filled his summer and weekend days. He also enjoyed a summer house in Mahopac, New York and skiing as often as possible. He made life long friends at Francis Lewis High School. Bob was also an avid reader and writer and an excellent student.

At Ithaca College he majored in Chemistry and then earned his PhD in Protein Chemistry at Boston University; those were the days when protein sequencing was brand new and Bob became adept at some of the first methodologies. 

It was at Boston University that Bob met Betsey Dyer a graduate student in Biology. Betsey’s PhD advisor asked Bob’s PhD advisor to send over a graduate student (Bob) to solve a problem in protein chemistry. Bob and Betsey met at a lab meeting about tubulin proteins and fell in love. Over the years Bob and Betsey collaborated on many projects involving protein chemistry and biology including co-authoring papers and writing a book together Tracing the History of Eukaryotic Cells. Even books written by Betsey alone were essentially collaborations with Bob as he was an excellent editor and a valuable source of information on chemistry.

After getting their PhDs, Bob and Betsey moved to a house on Betsey’s family farm in Rehoboth Massachusetts and married in 1986. Bob had a post-doctoral position at the Worcester Foundation on microtubule associated proteins. Summers were at the Marine Biology Lab in Woods Hole. In Rehoboth, their daughter Alice was born; soon after they moved to an old house in Walpole, Massachusetts where their son Samuel was born.

Over several decades Bob worked at biotech companies in Cambridge and Boston and also at Harvard Medical School. He authored and co-authored dozens of research papers. Among his favorite projects was helping decipher the interactions of proteins in fruit flies (the interactome) in the Artavanis-Tasakonis lab at Harvard. Bob was not retired at his death; he was still consulting part time for research on Alzheimer’s Disease.

All his life Bob was a fan of Mets baseball, St John’s basketball, and any team playing against the Yankees, which means he rooted for the Red Sox. He also rooted for the Patriots especially against the New York Jets who had defected to New Jersey.

Bob got a GPS for Christmas in 2000 and in early 2001 became one of the first geocachers in Massachusetts. Many of the oldest caches in the area are his. In his geocaching career, under the name “robar” he found 3,145 caches all over the world and set and maintained 18 caches.

Bob loved music and listened nearly everyday to Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Neil Young and others. He went to dozens of rock concerts and once flew to Florida to see Springsteen because tickets in the New England and New York area were sold out. He also loved small venues for jazz and blues.

Among friends and family he was known for his encyclopedic expertise in technology, solving all sorts of computer, printer, Internet, and phone problems. He knew something about everything. He loved assembling things; he delighted at a flat box arriving full of parts to assemble a piece of furniture.  He gave many people wise counsel on the art of searching for a job, interviewing, and negotiating a salary. In short he thrived on problem-solving.

Bob loved libraries. In addition to the one he and Betsey assembled at home, including Bob’s collection of baseball books he frequented public libraries. He held five library cards and went to at least a couple of libraries every week.

He donated blood as often as he was allowed at Children’s Hospital Boston and thus much of his casual wardrobe was comprised of Children’s Hospital t-shirts, sweatshirts and jackets (rewards to frequent donors).

Many traditional Jewish foods were his favorite including matzah ball soup, latkes, gefilte fish, pickled herring, lox and bagels, brisket and matzah. A kitchen cupboard was devoted to preparing these foods. He was also a connoisseur of craft beers.

Bob was in weekly communication by phone, letter and email, and often visits with many of the group of friends he had met in elementary and high school. His recent 50th high school reunion was essentially a reunion of that band of comrades. Along the way he also made great, life-long friends from his post doc and years in biotech.

Bob and Betsey enjoyed many trips together, the last one being to the Antarctic in December of 2024. They ascribed to the advice of a well-travelled friend with whom Bob had travelled to Iceland: Do the action adventure trips while you can; save the luxury cruises for later. Previous action adventure trips included the Peruvian Amazon.

He leaves behind his wife Betsey Dyer, his daughter Alice Obar and her husband Esteban Mendiolaza and his son Samuel Obar, his sister Nancy Costa and also his 99 year old mother Evelyn Obar and her twin sister Shirley Edelheit. His father Morton Obar predeceased him. He also leaves behind many nieces, nephews, grand nieces and nephews and cousins.

A Celebration of Life for family and friends will be scheduled at a later date.

The family has asked that in lieu of flowers please consider making a donation to the Children’s Hospital Boston

where Bob regularly donated blood. Children's Hospital

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