Robert Lucien Maddex

Robert Maddex

Robert Lucien Maddex, 83, of Ocean View, Delaware, died on January 13. A lawyer who was graduated cum laude from the George Washington University School of Law in 1970, he served for several decades on the staff of the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission. Robert began his employment there in summer 1963 as a G.W. student, later continuing his service full time until 1989. He married his wife, Diane-a fellow summer employee he met at the commission-in 1965. Their daughter, Alison, was born the following year.

Work took Robert and his family In 1972–74 to the island of Saipan in the Mariana Islands, where he helped manage the claims program providing compensation to Micronesians for damages suffered in the Japanese-American conflict during World War II. He later returned to Micronesia, to Ponape, to serve from 1989 to 1992 as a legal adviser to its legislature.

Robert was born in Martinsburg, W. Va., in 1942, while his parents, Gladys Tennant and R. Lucien Maddex, were living in their historic hometown of Shepherdstown, W. Va. After finishing high school in the state capital of Charleston, Robert first attended the University of Cincinnati in 1960 to study architecture; he then transferred to start his second year of college at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. After obtaining his bachelor's degree in political science in 1965, Robert followed his father's path and studied law, attending G. W. Law School at night while remaining on the Claims Commission staff.

During his retirement Robert wrote six legal reference books published by CQ Press and produced by Archetype Press, a book producer founded by his wife, Diane Maddex. His books include Constitutions of the World, The U.S. Constitution A to Z, State Constitutions of the United States, The Illustrated Dictionary of Constitutional Concepts, The International Encyclopedia of Human Rights, and Encyclopedia of Sexual Behavior and the Law.

After moving from Reston, Virginia, to Fenwick Island in 2002, Robert volunteered for various local and state activities, including service on the board of the Friends of the South Coastal Library; he was also appointed by Governor Jack Markell to the Delaware Board of Nursing. Active in local politics, he ran against Gerald Hocker for the Delaware State House of Representatives in 2006-but won only a ride in a horse-drawn carriage on Return Day. Over the years, the Maddexes owned various beach properties at Sea Colony, King's Grant, Bear Trap Dunes, and Water's Edge in Fenwick Island, where they resided from 2002 to 2019. After spending two years in Tucson, Arizona, the couple returned to Delaware in 2024 to live at Marlin Chase in Ocean View.

Robert is survived by his wife of 60 years, Diane Maddex, of Ocean View, as well as his daughter, Alison Maddex, an art educator, and his grandson, Lucien Maddex, a beginning pilot, both of Wallingford, Pa.