Robert (Bob) Dodge died May 12, 2024 in Denver from glioblastoma, a brain tumor. Bob was born on September 8, 1945, to Vincent and Irene Dodge. He attended Fargo Central High School, where he was president of the Student Council. After graduating from high school in 1963, Bob enrolled at NDSU where he earned a BA with honors in history and an MA in education. He received the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Post-Graduate Scholarship, one of only 22 awarded nationally, for combined academic and athletic (tennis) performance. He also received a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School.
He was a husband, father, author, historian, educator and volunteer. In each of these areas, he excelled. This is particularly noteworthy given the fact that he battled epilepsy since his early 30s. Bob published nine books. These include Catherine Cater: An Elegant Rise Above Race and Gender, a tribute to his favorite NDSU professor. (He later set up a scholarship in her honor at NDSU.) Bob has noted that though he later studied at Harvard and Oxford, she remained the best professor under whom he studied. He also wrote The Strategist: The Life and Times of Thomas Schelling , the biography of the Nobel Laureate in economics in 2005 and his professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. This highly praised work led to a second book, Schelling’s Game Theory: How to Make Decisions, which adapted Schelling’s graduate level materials to make them accessible to undergraduate and advanced high school students, As a historian, he wrote a number of books focusing on major issues in the US. These include Which Chosen People? Manifest Destiny Meets the Sioux , as well as Andrea and Sylvester: Challenging Marriage Taboos and Paving the Road to Same-Sex Marriage. He focused on issues of immigrant and refugee experiences in Tempest-Tost: The Refugee Experience Through the Prism of One Community. His book Grand Mal: A Life with Late Onset Epilepsy, outlined the physical and psychological challenges of epilepsy including the stigma associated with the disease. The book won awards in New York and Colorado. His most recent book Fields of Fortune: Viking Farmers in America , published in 2023, tells his mother’s story in the context of immigration to the US from Norway.
Bob had an outstanding career as a teacher in the Singapore American School from 1983-2006, at the American Community School of London from 1979-1983, and West Fargo, North Dakota public Schools from 1969-1979. He focused on Advanced Placement (AP) courses, served as Social Studies Department Chairman and organized student trips including student trekking in the Himalaya, sailing the South China Sea, camel trekking in India, elephant trekking in Nepal, and cave exploration and abseiling in Australia. Perhaps his greatest contribution to students at the Singapore American School was his establishment and leadership of weekly student visits to the Leprosy Home, a home for victims of leprosy who previously had not had visitors. Many students cited these visits as the most impactful aspect of their experiences at the school. He ran the program for about 30 years, and his legacy continues today with the Leprosy Home. A member of the Rocky Mountain Harvard Club, the Colorado Authors League, and the Denver Press Club, Bob continued his commitment to volunteering through mentoring immigrants and refugees in the Denver area as they prepared for the US citizenship examinations. All of his mentees passed the examination.
He is survived by Jane Anderson Dodge, his wife of 55 years, and his daughter Anne, her husband Jim Carpenter, and his two grandchildren, Mya and Tai plus four step grandchildren, Annie, Jose, Ethan, and Gabe. He is also survived by his sister Patty Dodge Stocker and brother Larry Dodge.
No services are planned. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations to a charity of the your choice or to the Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado & Wyoming in Bob's name. The mailing address for checks is: Epilepsy Foundation of Colorado & Wyoming, 6025 S Quebec St., Suite 150, Centennial, CO 80111.
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