Robert Fowler Atwood

On Friday, November 5 we lost Bill's cousin in a tragic car accident. His death came to a shock to us all. Robert Atwood will forever remain in our hearts.

Robert was one of the most patient men and a genius when it came to computers. A special memory I hold dear is the night my mother's computer crashed as we lost her dissertation paper. This was early in my marriage and so my relationship with Robert was still pretty new. Without hesitation, Robert proceeded to spend several hours sorting through our computer via a "sharing" application over the Internet. Navigating two frazzled women through a technical world they did not fully understand and keeping them calm through the shrills of "you have got to be kidding me?" and "what are we going to do?" was no small task. Our hero was able to locate the file through the tangled mess of corrupted documents and restore the paper as well as our faith in computers.

But that is just one example of the type of person Robert was. Always willing to help out. Patient. Kind. He was truly loved by his family and friends and we will miss him dearly. On the day that we celebrated his life, a poem by Christiana Rossetti was shared...

Love is the key of Life and Death,

of hidden heavenly mystery:

Of all Christ is, of all He saith,

Love is the key.

All three times to His Saint, He saith,

He saith to me, He saith to thee,

Breathing His Grace-conferring Breath:

"Lovest thou me?"

Ah, Lord, I have such feeble faith,

Such feeble hope to comfort me:

But love it is, is strong as death,

And I love Thee.

Until we meet again, sweet friend. We love you.

Robert Fowler Atwood 1982-2010