Robert "Bob" Paynter

I admired Bob's work from afar for many years. In 1999 I travelled in South Africa with him and Martin Wobst and Sven Ouzman and 16 Aboriginal people from Australia. We had fun, but it was also a wonderful cross-cultural learning experience, and I came to appreciate Bob's kindness and humour and clear- headedness. The world is less without him. My condolences to Linda and his family.

Bob served on my thesis committee, back in the 1990's. I never failed to find value in everything Bob said or in most of what he did. I've just now learned of Bob's passing and I am genuinely saddened to learn of it. My condolences go out to his family. We have lost a true mentor. The world is a far lesser place without Bob and even Heaven, itself, is improved by his presence, there. To show my appreciation for his service to me, I once gave him an autographed Ted Williams baseball. ...

Rob had a profound and enduring influence on me when I was a UMASS undergrad right after he arrived on campus in the early 1980s. He introduced me to the idea of historical archeology and it's stayed with me through me entire career. Of all the great faculty I had the honor of working with, Rob gave me the tools and new insights to see things differently. So sorry to hear of his passing. May his memory be a blessing to his fam and friends.

You don't know me, but I know Bob and I can only imagine how much his loss echoes through your lives. A brief explanation--I am a fellow historical archaeologist who Bob mentored, even though I was never his student or a research collaborator. At one particularly memorable conference, Bob took hours out of his day to talk to me about how to build a sustainable field school at a time when I was really struggling. His advice was so sound and he later checked in with me to see how I was faring....

I know Bob when I was the lab coordinator in the Anthropology Department at UMass Amherst. I remember those days when Bob and I spent hours in the archaeological lab checking archives and historical artifacts, and generating catalogs. I remember I was his TA for the ANTHRO 101 course Human Nature. I'm still so impressed by how Bob could handle such big class, standing on a big stage and simply talking so passionately about archaeology, culture, human, and so on and so on. I remember those...

I first met Bob when visiting Plimoth Plantation in 1971, where he was standing in bottom of a hole with sawdust pouring onto his head: the very model of working class hero. Didn't really get to know him until 2nd year of grad school when we both lived in a rented house known to both faculty and students as "the Hadley Zoo" (Linda will recall). He went on to the sterling career described; myself to government service. That may sound like very different paths, but we were both working...

Whenever Bobby talked to you his eyes never left your face. He would always listen carefully and make you feel interesting, even if you weren't. Great family memories. Miss you cuz.