Robert Stauffer

Stauffer , Robert 1/30/1941 - 3/14/2022 Kalamazoo Robert Stauffer passed away in Hospice care at StoryPoint Senior Living on March 14, 2022. In honor of his 35 years of teaching sociology at Kalamazoo College, his memorial gathering will take place in the Olmsted Room in Mandelle Hall on Saturday, August 6 at 1pm. His children, Devin and Tema Stauffer, welcome your presence. Robert ("Bob") Stauffer was born in Peoria, Illinois on January 30, 1941. His parents, Eugene and Mary Alice Stauffer, moved between various towns and congregations in central Illinois and led a life rich in friendship, community, and religion. Bob received a BA from the University of Illinois and a PhD in sociology from the University of Chicago. It was through teaching courses as an adjunct at the University of Illinois while completing his doctorate that Bob met Trudy Wambach, whom he married in 1966. In 1967, they moved to Chapel Hill for his position at the University of North Carolina, where they began a life-long conversation about gender, marriage, and family in the context of the civil rights and feminist movements. Both of their children were born in North Carolina before the family moved to Michigan for Bob's new position at Kalamazoo College. There, he found a nearly perfect home for himself. He loved Kalamazoo College. He loved the campus, with its beautiful grounds and human dimensions, attached to a welcoming neighborhood which he lived in and loved too. He loved the students, with whom he liked to talk not only about all things sociological, but also about their lives. And he loved his colleagues, many of whom became his close friends. Bob gave himself to "K." He had a gift for teaching because he was smart, intellectually vigorous, and engaging, and also because he was warm, open, and kind. His passion for teaching and intellectual conversation, his affection for his students and theirs for him, and his engagement in friendships and community are the legacy and model that ultimately inspired and shaped the paths of his children, who both became academics in their respective fields. Bob also enjoyed simple pleasures and rituals. He played the trumpet in the Kalamazoo Concert Band and listened to jazz. He walked to the Michigan News Agency every Sunday to pick up the NY Times. The Stauffer family took vacations almost every summer on Lake Michigan. During the years after his retirement, he joined his group of friends for lunch on Thursdays at the Roadhouse. He was affable, outgoing, charming, considerate, and always ready with questions for those around him. By everyone's estimation, he was a great teacher, a great father, a great husband, and a great friend. His devotion to Trudy, especially during her decline from Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, was remarkable in its selflessness and loving care. When she died in January 2020, it was a loss and blow from which he never truly recovered. Devin and Tema are grateful to the group of friends who helped them care for Bob in his final years and demonstrated remarkable loyalty and generosity. Those who wish to attend the memorial gathering are encouraged to join them in reflecting on his life and commitment to Kalamazoo College.