Robert Colin Summers Sr.
1929 – 2009

OQUOSSOC — Robert Colin Summers Sr., of Oquossoc, died peacefully on July 22.

Bob was born on Dec. 16, 1929, in Orange, N.J., the son of the late Leon Colin and Dorothy Wilson Summers. He spent his childhood in Massachusetts, where he found his lifelong loves of sailing and the Red Sox and in New Jersey, where as an outnumbered fan of the Red Sox, his less than favorable feeling toward the Yankees firmly took hold.

He graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood, N.J., and from Muhlenberg College. From 1951 to 1952, he was the commodore of the Chatham (Mass.) Yacht Club and after graduating from college in 1952, he joined IBM in New York City. He then served in the Armed Forces and was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany from 1952 through 1954. On his return to IBM, he met and married his wife of 53 years, Nancy Stevenson of Newton Mass. 

In his 35-year career with IBM, he worked in sales, primarily as the branch manager in Boston and the country manager in Hong Kong. After retiring from IBM in 1987, he developed the State Street Institute at State Street Bank and Trust in Boston, making it into the world class training program that it is today.

He first visited the Rangeley Lakes region in 1970, and within a year he and his family decided to build a home there. While his career took him elsewhere at times, he considered Rangeley to be his home long before he eventually retired there.

His unselfishness and personal integrity was unwavering and not limited to his family and friends. It was felt in all the communities in which he lived. He was a Hugh O’Brian Fellow of Rotary International and was active in the Boston, Hong Kong, Rangeley and Tacoma, Wash., clubs. While in Boston, he was involved in the Black Achievers, the Boys and Girls Club, the Back Bay Improvement Association and the South Boston Redevelopment Group.

In Rangeley, he served on the board of the Rangeley Public Library, the Mooselookmeguntic Improvement Association, the Rangeley Region Economic Growth Organization and was a founding member of the Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust. 

He is survived by his loving wife, Nancy; his children, Timothy Summers and wife, Linn Gould, of Seattle, Wash., Robert Summers Jr. of Sunrise, Fla., and Laura Reynolds and husband, Paul, of Tacoma, Wash.; sisters, Elizabeth Cary, Dolly and Ted Howell and Helen and Fred Gregg; brother-in-law, Richard and Penny Stevenson; sister-in-law, Jane and Harold Fergus; and grandchildren, Parker and Colin Reynolds and Madison and Skye Summers.

He was predeceased by his siblings, Dudley Summers and Sylvia Todd. 

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