Robert Waymer

1938 - 2023

WAYMER, Dr., Robert "Bob" Weston

Bob's great and kind heart stopped on Monday, February 13, 2023 at Emory University Hospital.

Known as "Uncle Bag" or "Big Bob" in later years, Robert Weston Waymer was the ninth of ten children born to Robert and Mamie Collier Waymer in Elloree, SC. From the age of seven, he was raised and employed by his Aunt Ethel Harvey in Fayetteville, NC. Following the Waymer family's emphasis on education, he earned a BA from Morris Brown College, an MSW from Atlanta University, and a Ph.D. in Social Work Planning and Administration in 1995.

Throughout his career, Bob was frequently self-employed. He worked as a science teacher, epidemiologist, grant writer, program director, researcher, political organizer, real estate broker, elected official, and marketing consultant. Bob served his country as an X-Ray technician and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 1965.

From 1974 through 1988, Bob wrote a weekly editorial column for the Atlanta Voice, tutored by Editor J. Lowell Ware. In the 1970s, in cooperation with Clark College Mass Communications and the Atlanta Voice Newspaper, he mailed a monthly "camera ready" science news and information piece to 150 minority newspapers. From 1979 through 1981, he was a monthly editorialist for the Atlanta Constitution.

Bob was a consultant to Mrs. Coretta Scott King, writing the successful proposal for the designation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District.

Bob was appointed by Governor Jimmy Carter as Director of the Atlanta Narcotics Treatment Program. He was appointed by Lt. Governor Zell Miller to the Senate Music Industry Committee of Georgia, and to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Authority.

In 1977, Bob was appointed to the Atlanta City Council to serve out the unexpired elective term of Councilman Carl Ware. He was elected to three four-year terms on the Atlanta Board of Education beginning in 1981, representing the 6th Educational District. As chair of the APS Board Budget Committee, he led the Board to fund access to technology through a line item in the budget, in successive years, for Atlanta Public School students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. He also worked with school administrators and teachers to secure two successive years of 10% raises for teachers and other school support staff. At the request of the community, Bob and the School Board granted the fledgling WRFG radio station use of the former school building on Euclid Ave.

In 1999, Bob and Mary Lou Romaine Waymer were wed in Atlanta's Central Presbyterian Church by Pastor Ted Wardlaw and Rev. John Gillison, Presiding Elder of the Seventh Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (SC). From their honeymoon in St. Thomas, to trips across the USA, they traveled and enjoyed music together. Bob wanted to visit two places that he read about in his Weekly Reader as a child: the Chunnel from London to Paris, and the Panama Canal. Those travels were planned and enjoyed. Bob and Mary Lou also enjoyed travel and music from the Jazz Festival in Curacao to the Bobby Bland Blues Revue on a 2020 cruise, to sitting in the straw at Concerts in the Country, Lanierland, to hear singers such as Don Williams, Ronnie Milsap, and Loretta Lynn.

Bob's infectious laugh, loving heart, and kind words were always present in his home. Every morning he waited at the school bus stop with his children, Winston and Kim, reading the paper in his cowboy hat and boots. When his children became adults, he would fly them home on a whim, "just to look them in their eyes." His children as well as the community were very important to him.

Dr. Robert Waymer, "Dr. Bob," ended his career in 2016 with 17 years at Clark Atlanta University, having assisted 80 Ph.D. students with their research in social work.

Bob leaves to cherish his memory and his accomplishments for Atlanta and beyond, his loving wife, Mary Lou Romaine Waymer; and loving children, Kim Waymer McClure (Robert) and Winston Robert Waymer; stepson, Andrew Dinwiddie (Anna); sister, Alvesta Jean Gillison; brother-in-law, Thomas Wright; sister-in-law, Barbara Waymer; grandchildren, Chloe McClure, Ellory and Eartha Dinwiddie Carapetyan, Brittni Beatty (Emmanuel), Rhetta Peters (Keytwan Briggs), and Dylan Peters; great-grandchildren, Nahla Beatty and Ava Beatty, Roman Briggs and Kru'z Briggs; and so many wonderful nieces, nephews and loving family members.

A Visitation and Wake will be at Murray Bros. Funeral Home, 1199 Utoy Spring Rd., SW, 30331, 404-349-3000, from 3-5 PM on Saturday, March 4, 2023.

A Celebration of Robert W. Waymer's life will be held at Central Presbyterian Church, 201 Washington St., Atlanta, GA, on Sunday, March 5, 2023 at 2 PM.

In lieu of flowers, friends and family who wish to honor Bob's memory are asked to consider donating to the Southern Poverty Law Center, at their website, Southern Poverty Law Center (splcenter.org) or at SPLC, 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery, AL 36104; or to The Catherine Binns Scholarship Fund, Chi Eta Phi Sorority, Inc., Chi Phi Chapter, P.O. Box 20321, Tallahassee, FL 32316. The scholarship is awarded to nursing students at Bob's sister Catherine Binns' alma mater, Florida A&M University.