Dr. Robert Karl Bohn

Dr. Robert “Bob” Karl Bohn passed away peacefully at his home in Storrs, Connecticut on Thursday January 22nd, 2026. Bob was a long-time Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Connecticut, having first joined the faculty in 1965 as a 26-year-old Assistant Professor. He served as an educator and researcher there for 44 years – his entire professional career. He formally “retired” in 2009 and continued his contributions to Chemistry as a Professor Emeritus for more than a decade beyond, regularly reviewing papers, attending microwave spectroscopy seminars, and working in his on-campus office until his final days. Bob wished to send his deepest gratitude to his colleagues, graduate students, and undergraduate researchers at UConn and institutions beyond for their extraordinary inspiration, collaboration, and creativity.

Bob was born January 24th, 1939 in the Bronx borough of New York City, to Julius Theodore Bohn and Maria Christina Lorenzen Bohn, immigrants from the island of Föhr near the German coast of the North Sea. At five years old, his family moved across the country to settle on a chicken farm in Sebastopol, CA in a community of Frisians. He attended Eucalyptus Grammar School until 8th grade, graduating with a class of six (five girls and Bob) and Analy High School, where he was active in track and field, basketball, football, and student government, and graduated at the top of his class at age 16. He was drawn to Chemistry by his older brother Henry “Hank” and went on to enroll in Santa Rosa Junior College, eventually transferring to UC Berkeley where he was selected to Phi Beta Kappa and completed his B.S. degree in 1959. He was also a member of the Cal Glee Club, where he developed a life-long love of vocal harmony. He would go on to earn his Ph.D. in Chemistry at Cornell University in 1964, followed by a NATO postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oslo before eventually settling in Storrs, CT. At the time, Bob was admittedly unaware of the exact location of Storrs, and resorted to consulting the U.S. Embassy in Oslo for a sufficiently detailed map of Connecticut, only to find that they too, were unsure of its location.

Bob’s career brought him countless wonderful and memorable experiences that he would recall frequently; sabbaticals at the University of Tokyo, Columbia University, the University of Michigan, the University of British Columbia, and NIST; long-time collaborations at Wesleyan, Harvard, and others; the Austin Symposium on Molecular Structure; experiments on a prototype electron diffraction apparatus in the lobby of the Hewlett-Packard corporate headquarters in Palo Alto; department softball games; decades of singing with the Renaissance Revival chorus; and so many more.

At home, Bob was an active and engaged father and grandfather. Among his favorite activities was a recurring yearly trip with family and friends to Block Island, where he would transform from academics to bodysurfing, running, hunting for fiddler crabs, making thin pancakes, and building dribble castles on the beach. He also produced and proudly cheered on generations of hockey players.

He is survived by his wife Terri, brother Hank, children Robin and her husband Corey, Mark, Jeremy and his wife Nicole, Bryan and his wife Eli, grandchildren Sean, Conor, and Caridan (arriving April 2026), and dogs Captain and Hazel.

In lieu of a formal memorial service, the family happily welcomes personal memories and anecdotes from Bob’s many friends and professional collaborators around the world. Please send your thoughts to bob.bohn.memories@gmail.com. The family requests that any donations be sent to The Nature Conservancy, Block Island Program ( nature.org/blockisland ).