Robert (Bob) Hayes Reed died peacefully in his sleep on March 9, 2018 at the age of ninety. A longtime resident of Wayne, NJ, Bob was born in Nashville Tennessee, the son of Col. William Allison Reed and Dorothy Brooks Reed. He was a graduate of Riverdale Country Day School, and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, and he earned two masters degrees from Columbia University. Bob married Louise Wade Longenecker on April 21, 1962, and they enjoyed 56 wonderful years of marriage. He was an employment counselor and later a supervisor for the New York State Department of Labor for over 25 years. Bob enjoyed singing, acting and history, and he loved to travel with his wife, Louise.

Bob and Louise raised their three daughters in Packanack Lake, enjoying swimming and sailing on the lake in summers and ice skating in the winter. Bob made a porch swing where the girls would sit and listen to him sing “Bye, Bye Blackbird” and “the Merry Widow” on hot summer nights.

Bob was a proud “Barbershopper” and a member of the bass section of the Montclair Chorus and later the Dapper Dans of Harmony, both barbershop choruses which were part of the Society for the Preservation of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America. Fondly, he remembered performing on stage with the Montclair Chorus to earn a 5th place finish at the international competition in San Francisco, California in 1976. Bob was a member of Wayne Presbyterian Church for over 45 years where his lovely bass voice blessed the church choir; he smiled after he hit his low D.

Bob enjoyed community theater. A memorable role was “Teddy Roosevelt” Brewster in the Packanack Players’ production of Arsenic and Old Lace. Once he involved his entire family in a production of The Sound of Music, with some on stage and some in the pit orchestra.

A history buff, Bob was a member of the Titanic Historical Society and could be counted upon to provide trivia of all kinds, as requested. He and his wife made a pilgrimage to Thompson Dry Dock where the Titanic was built.

Bob and Louise loved to travel, often for a month at a time. Among their many journeys were two trans-Atlantic ship crossings, a Canadian rail crossing on the historic Pullman cars before they were retired, a tour of Israel, Egypt and Jordan, and a special Christmas in London with his entire family where they admired the windows at Harrods Department Store. He was a wonderful guide on road trips, finding scenic byways and little known historical gems.

Bob is survived by his wife, Louise, his three daughters, Amy Louise Eich, Susan Kay Dromsky-Reed, and Deborah Reed Joves, seven grandchildren, Louise Elizabeth Eich, Dolph Evan Eich, Jr., Katharine Marie Eich, Jessie Elisabeth Dromsky-Reed, Robert Millen Dromsky-Reed, Constance Athena Joves, Audrey Reed Joves, and one great-grandchild, Dolph Evan Eich, III. He was loved.