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Robert Labby ’43

Bob grew up in Portland’s Laurelhurst neighborhood, the son of dentist Harry Labby and his wife, Sonia.  Bob graduated from Grant High School in 1939 and served in the 87th Mountain Infantry Regiment at Fort Lewis, Washington, and then in the 10th Mountain Division during the war. As a demolition expert, he served in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and then was transferred to the Northern Apennines and Po Valley in Italy. He remained close to his comrades in arms throughout his life and made many trips abroad with members of the 10th Mountain.

When Bob returned from the war he attended Reed, the alma mater of his brothers Daniel ’35 and Arnold ’51, as well as their wives Margaret ’40, and Eva ’51. It was at Reed that he met his wife, Lore Caro ’47. Bob did not finish his bachelor’s degree at Reed, graduating instead from Lewis and Clark College in 1950.  He spent his entire career in the pharmaceutical industry, retiring from Schering-Plough in 1986.

A true outdoorsman, he spent his weekends and vacations on Mt. Hood with the ski patrol, or fishing the coastal rivers for steelhead and salmon. His crowning achievement as an angler was landing a 57-pound chinook salmon from the bank at the mouth of the Siletz River. He spent many months in rehab after a nearly fatal car crash returning from a fishing trip in 1961. This ended his skiing, though he returned to work and continued to fish. His wife, Lore; sons, Lawrence and Paul (Lee Ann); grandchildren, Even and Alex; and brother, Arnold, and sister-in-law, Eva, all survive him.

Appeared in Reed magazine: June 2016