Robert Christie Nangle

(March 26, 1930 - May 9, 2017)

Robert Christie (Bob) Nangle died peacefully after a long illness at the Meriden Center in Connecticut. Karen (nee Frede), his wife of 57 years was by his side. A graduate of the Foote School in New Haven, Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts, and Yale University, he learned how to set monotype, in the fashion of Gutenberg, at Groton, beginning a life-long involvement with the rapidly changing industry of printing and publishing. When he became a partner of Clarke and Way, New York City, he had to join the International Typographers Union to be allowed to run the very machines he, himself, owned. He was amused to find he was the only graduate of Groton who belonged to a union. He was instrumental in producing the first book set by optical character recognition. Ultimately, he founded his own company, designing, and setting books by computer instead of monotype. He loved tailoring the specific look of the printed word on a title page or chapter opener so the design echoed the essence of the book.

Bob worked closely with Frederic C. Beil, in Savannah, who shared his aesthetic, on the book, "Mary Telfair: The Life and Legacy of a Nineteenth Century Woman" by Charles J. Johnson, Jr. published in 2002.

While an undergraduate at Yale, he and a group of his friends enlisted in the National Guard. Their unit was federalized and was stationed in Savannah, where he managed to get himself and his friends wined and dined. He loved Savannah so much that when The Landings got in touch with us in Connecticut, we flew down and bought a house in three days

Bob, his wife, Karen and rescue dog, Sarah, lived at the Landings for 9 years where he played poker and rode his bicycle. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughter Jocelyn, son Frederic, daughter-in-law, Nina Crothers, granddaughters Sofia and Freya Nangle, and his beloved dog, Neave. Please consider a donation in Bob's memory to the Meriden Humane Society, 311 Murdock Ave. Meriden, CT 06450.