{"id":929,"date":"2016-04-05T20:40:06","date_gmt":"2016-04-05T20:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?p=929"},"modified":"2025-07-25T18:16:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T22:16:35","slug":"robert-welch-1944-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/robert-welch-1944-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Welch (1944-2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"

B<\/span>ob Welch, former acting president, dean\u00a0and associate dean of academic affairs, senior lecturer in philosophy, and dear friend of Goucher College, passed away February 28, after a two-year battle with cancer.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Goucher community has lost one of its treasures,\u201d said Goucher President Jose\u0301 Bowen. \u201cBob loved Goucher deeply, and our community loved him just as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welch devoted his life to serving students in pursuit of truth. He met his wife, Patricia \u201cPat\u201d Farrell, during his undergraduate days at Brown University, and afterwards taught middle-school and high-school English for many years. He decided to return to school to earn a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and served in numerous positions there. He relocated to Baltimore in 1985 to serve as dean of Homewood schools administration at the Johns Hopkins University.<\/p>\n

He arrived at Goucher in 1989 to serve as associate dean and then dean of academic affairs. Among his many accomplishments, he was instrumental in expanding the college\u2019s program of continuing education, and the Robert S. Welch Center of Graduate and Professional Studies was named in his honor. Together with other faculty members, he created the individualized interdisciplinary major and pioneered the Interdisciplinary Studies Program.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He was appointed acting president for the 2000-2001 school year, and then returned to the classroom, where he taught philosophy until his retirement in August 2014.<\/p>\n

As former President Sanford J. Ungar said:
\n\u201cBob Welch led Goucher through an important transitional period with grace and skill. He was able to do that because he knew the college and its people so well and believed in its mission and its future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welch was a true servant to Goucher who always held the good of the students, the faculty, and the college foremost in his mind. A leader who led from behind, he created room for discussion and deliberation with those with whom he worked. He offered multiple solutions when approaching a situation, and allowed his colleagues to choose the best path for them. Anxious to get back into the classroom\u2014to students\u2014after his tenure as acting president, he taught until the day he was diagnosed. Even afterward, he hosted beer tastings faithfully every year for Alumnae\/i Weekend.<\/p>\n

Former Goucher President Judy Mohraz worked very closely with Welch as well: \u201cBob embodied the strengths of Goucher. He was smart, creative, committed, and most of all humane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welch is survived by his wife, Pat; their son, Ryan, and Ryan\u2019s fiance\u0301e, Lydiya Petrova; and a sister, Katherine Welch.<\/p>\n

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PLEASE SEND YOUR REMINISCENCES of Bob Welch to Goucher.Magazine@goucher.edu<\/a>. We will publish as many of them as we can.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Goucher community has lost one of its treasures.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":312,"featured_media":930,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7935],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[87492],"class_list":["post-929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goucher-today"],"yoast_head":"\nRobert Welch (1944-2016) | Goucher Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/robert-welch-1944-2016\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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