President Emeritus Robert H. Edwards (1935–2025)
To the Bowdoin community,
I am writing with the sad news that Robert Hazard Edwards, Bowdoin’s thirteenth president, died in Newcastle, Maine, on Sunday, November 30, 2025. He was 90.
During his eleven years as president, from 1990 to 2001, Bob shaped the College we know today—through his steady leadership, his global perspective and foresight, and his commitment to the liberal arts as a force for the common good. He brought significant change to the governance of the College, the residential life of students, the stability and health of Bowdoin’s finances, the strength of the academic program, and the size and composition of the faculty.
Bob was born in London, England, on May 26, 1935. An American citizen, he grew up in Middletown, Ohio, attended Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, and graduated from Princeton University in 1957, magna cum laude, as an English major. He read law at Cambridge University, from which he received BA and MA degrees, earned an LLB degree at Harvard, and was admitted to the federal bar in 1961.
When Bob was selected as Bowdoin’s new president in 1990, he brought experience leading a liberal arts institution, an international perspective shaped by years of work in Africa and South Asia, and a clear-eyed ability to recognize and respond to a changing social, educational, and economic landscape.
Bob and his wife, Blythe Bickel Edwards, married in Paris in 1988 and were living there when the opportunity for Bob to lead Bowdoin arose. Drawn to what he called Bowdoin’s “extraordinary history” and to what he described as “a challenge, but a challenge with a certain grandeur to it,” he arrived in Brunswick in 1990, where he discovered some of those challenges early on, including significant financial strains. Bob reorganized the administration of the College, balanced the budget, and strengthened planning and oversight.
He presided over Bowdoin’s bicentennial celebration and The New Century Campaign, which increased the value of the endowment by nearly 75 percent and raised significant resources for professorships, scholarships, and capital improvement projects. During the Edwards years, the College expanded dining and residential facilities by renovating Moulton Union and building Thorne Dining Hall and adding Stowe, Howard, and Chamberlain residential halls; strengthened science instruction and research through renovations to Searles and Cleaveland, by building Druckenmiller Hall, and by the development of terrestrial and marine labs at the property that would later become the Schiller Coastal Studies Center; and bolstered the arts with a renovation of Memorial Hall and the construction of Wish Theater.
During his presidency, enrollment grew from 1,375 to around 1,600 students, and the endowment increased from approximately $150 million to $450 million.
A major question facing Bob’s administration was what to do about residential life at the College. The creation of the David Saul Smith Union in the space that had housed the Hyde Athletic Building provided a new focal point for student life, and further changes came from the establishment of the Commission on Residential Life. The Board of Trustees established the commission to conduct an extensive study and to develop a new philosophy of residential life at the College with input from the campus community, alumni, parents, and trustees. Its recommendations, which included phasing out fraternities, creating the College House system, and improving dining and residential facilities, were approved unanimously by the board in 1997.
Changes to Bowdoin’s residential life may be the achievement for which he is best known, but Bob led improvements and reforms of all kinds in his years at the College. Bob had a rich international background that featured important leadership roles in Africa and Asia, including overseeing a network of schools, community health programs, and hospitals for the Aga Khan. With the perspective that that experience afforded him, Bob championed study away as part of a Bowdoin education and helped grow programs with Colby and Bates in the UK, Ecuador, and South Africa.
Bowdoin was not Bob’s first college presidency; he had been named the seventh president of Carleton College in 1977. During his nine-year term as president, he focused on admissions policy, faculty development, the library, and building the endowment. While at Carleton, he served as a trustee of the African American Institute, Deerfield Academy, the Science Museum of Minnesota, the General Service Foundation, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He was also a member of the board of overseers of the Minnesota School of Management.
As he did at Carleton, Bob took on additional responsibilities during his time at Bowdoin. He served as chair of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, as a member of the Advisory Council to the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Education and Human Resources, on the boards of Maine Public Broadcasting and MaineHealth, and on the Board of Visitors of the University of Maine. He was appointed by Governor John McKernan to the board of the Maine Science and Technology Foundation. He was elected to prestigious membership at the Council on Foreign Relations and at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Bob was awarded honorary degrees by Carleton College in 1986, Bowdoin and Colby in 2001, and the University of Maine in 2007. In 2013, the College dedicated the Robert H. Edwards and Blythe Bickel Edwards Center for Art and Dance in the renovated former Longfellow Elementary School building.
He is survived by his daughters, Elizabeth “Eliza” Hazard Edwards and Daphne Hazard Edwards, and by his grandsons, Oliver Skye Rodgers, Dominic Dylan Delong-Rodgers and his wife, Autumn, and by his sister, Barbara Edwards Hicks, and her husband, Paul. He was predeceased by his wife, Blythe Bickel Edwards, in 2024, and by his son, Nicholas Hazard Edwards, in 2011. He embraced Blythe’s children as his own and is survived by this extended family: Jonathan Kaufmann and his wife, Katherine, and their children, William, Grant, and Elizabeth, and William Kaufmann and his son, Lorenzo Kaufmann Albano.
When I first came to Bowdoin, Bob and Blythe welcomed Huff and me with their trademark graciousness, and I was able to experience firsthand Bob’s engaging intellect and his devotion to the College. We join Bob’s family and many friends in deep appreciation for his life, and I know that many of you, like me, share a sense of gratitude for all that Bob did to shape the college we know today.
The family will plan a simple graveside ceremony in June 2026 for family, friends, and well-wishers.
Sincerely,
Safa
I am writing with the sad news that Robert Hazard Edwards, Bowdoin’s thirteenth president, died in Newcastle, Maine, on Sunday, November 30, 2025. He was 90.
During his eleven years as president, from 1990 to 2001, Bob shaped the College we know today—through his steady leadership, his global perspective and foresight, and his commitment to the liberal arts as a force for the common good. He brought significant change to the governance of the College, the residential life of students, the stability and health of Bowdoin’s finances, the strength of the academic program, and the size and composition of the faculty.
Bob was born in London, England, on May 26, 1935. An American citizen, he grew up in Middletown, Ohio, attended Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, and graduated from Princeton University in 1957, magna cum laude, as an English major. He read law at Cambridge University, from which he received BA and MA degrees, earned an LLB degree at Harvard, and was admitted to the federal bar in 1961.
When Bob was selected as Bowdoin’s new president in 1990, he brought experience leading a liberal arts institution, an international perspective shaped by years of work in Africa and South Asia, and a clear-eyed ability to recognize and respond to a changing social, educational, and economic landscape.
Bob and his wife, Blythe Bickel Edwards, married in Paris in 1988 and were living there when the opportunity for Bob to lead Bowdoin arose. Drawn to what he called Bowdoin’s “extraordinary history” and to what he described as “a challenge, but a challenge with a certain grandeur to it,” he arrived in Brunswick in 1990, where he discovered some of those challenges early on, including significant financial strains. Bob reorganized the administration of the College, balanced the budget, and strengthened planning and oversight.
He presided over Bowdoin’s bicentennial celebration and The New Century Campaign, which increased the value of the endowment by nearly 75 percent and raised significant resources for professorships, scholarships, and capital improvement projects. During the Edwards years, the College expanded dining and residential facilities by renovating Moulton Union and building Thorne Dining Hall and adding Stowe, Howard, and Chamberlain residential halls; strengthened science instruction and research through renovations to Searles and Cleaveland, by building Druckenmiller Hall, and by the development of terrestrial and marine labs at the property that would later become the Schiller Coastal Studies Center; and bolstered the arts with a renovation of Memorial Hall and the construction of Wish Theater.
During his presidency, enrollment grew from 1,375 to around 1,600 students, and the endowment increased from approximately $150 million to $450 million.
A major question facing Bob’s administration was what to do about residential life at the College. The creation of the David Saul Smith Union in the space that had housed the Hyde Athletic Building provided a new focal point for student life, and further changes came from the establishment of the Commission on Residential Life. The Board of Trustees established the commission to conduct an extensive study and to develop a new philosophy of residential life at the College with input from the campus community, alumni, parents, and trustees. Its recommendations, which included phasing out fraternities, creating the College House system, and improving dining and residential facilities, were approved unanimously by the board in 1997.
Changes to Bowdoin’s residential life may be the achievement for which he is best known, but Bob led improvements and reforms of all kinds in his years at the College. Bob had a rich international background that featured important leadership roles in Africa and Asia, including overseeing a network of schools, community health programs, and hospitals for the Aga Khan. With the perspective that that experience afforded him, Bob championed study away as part of a Bowdoin education and helped grow programs with Colby and Bates in the UK, Ecuador, and South Africa.
Bowdoin was not Bob’s first college presidency; he had been named the seventh president of Carleton College in 1977. During his nine-year term as president, he focused on admissions policy, faculty development, the library, and building the endowment. While at Carleton, he served as a trustee of the African American Institute, Deerfield Academy, the Science Museum of Minnesota, the General Service Foundation, and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He was also a member of the board of overseers of the Minnesota School of Management.
As he did at Carleton, Bob took on additional responsibilities during his time at Bowdoin. He served as chair of the Maine Mathematics and Science Alliance, as a member of the Advisory Council to the National Science Foundation's Directorate for Education and Human Resources, on the boards of Maine Public Broadcasting and MaineHealth, and on the Board of Visitors of the University of Maine. He was appointed by Governor John McKernan to the board of the Maine Science and Technology Foundation. He was elected to prestigious membership at the Council on Foreign Relations and at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Bob was awarded honorary degrees by Carleton College in 1986, Bowdoin and Colby in 2001, and the University of Maine in 2007. In 2013, the College dedicated the Robert H. Edwards and Blythe Bickel Edwards Center for Art and Dance in the renovated former Longfellow Elementary School building.
He is survived by his daughters, Elizabeth “Eliza” Hazard Edwards and Daphne Hazard Edwards, and by his grandsons, Oliver Skye Rodgers, Dominic Dylan Delong-Rodgers and his wife, Autumn, and by his sister, Barbara Edwards Hicks, and her husband, Paul. He was predeceased by his wife, Blythe Bickel Edwards, in 2024, and by his son, Nicholas Hazard Edwards, in 2011. He embraced Blythe’s children as his own and is survived by this extended family: Jonathan Kaufmann and his wife, Katherine, and their children, William, Grant, and Elizabeth, and William Kaufmann and his son, Lorenzo Kaufmann Albano.
When I first came to Bowdoin, Bob and Blythe welcomed Huff and me with their trademark graciousness, and I was able to experience firsthand Bob’s engaging intellect and his devotion to the College. We join Bob’s family and many friends in deep appreciation for his life, and I know that many of you, like me, share a sense of gratitude for all that Bob did to shape the college we know today.
The family will plan a simple graveside ceremony in June 2026 for family, friends, and well-wishers.
Sincerely,
Safa