Robert Scott Chinn

Robert Scott Chinn

Robert Scott Chinn, who moved to Charlottesville to attend graduate school at the University of Virginia and later worked at several area hotels, died of lung cancer on Monday, October 24, 2011, at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He was 60. Mr. Chinn, who was known as Scott, was born in Beaumont, Texas, the son of Charles Brian Chinn, a transportation executive, and Barbara H. Chinn, a teacher. The family moved frequently during Mr. Chinn's childhood. He graduated in 1968 from Marblehead High School in Marblehead, Massachusetts, where he excelled in academics.

He attended the University of Chicago for two years, then earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He was accepted into the doctorate program in economics at the University of Virginia in 1981, having never taken a formal class in economics. He was self-taught in that field and several others, including the Russian and Latin languages. A highly skilled chess player, he enjoyed playing matches on-line against opponents all over the world. He also enjoyed crafting pithy on-line reviews of often obscure films.

Raised in the Unitarian Church, Mr. Chinn became a devout Catholic as an adult. He attended mass at both St. Thomas Aquinas and Holy Comforter Catholic Churches in Charlottesville. He worked as a desk clerk, night auditor, and assistant manager at hotels in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Charlottesville, most recently at the Comfort Inn University, where he worked until becoming ill in July. He moved in September to his sister, Barbara's home in Baltimore, where she cared for him until he was hospitalized. He is survived by two loving sisters and their husbands, Barbara and Richard Newbauer of Baltimore, Maryland, and Elizabeth and Charles Lean of Woodstock, Maryland; nephews and nieces, Max and Adriane Newbauer, Jackson and Megan Newbauer, and Spencer Lean; a great-niece and a great-nephew. Mr. Chinn will be buried at New Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore. Services are private. Arrangements by Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home in Towson, Maryland.

Donations in Mr. Chinn's memory may be made to Union Memorial Hospital Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.