PLEASE NOTE: The Celebration of Bob's life has been rescheduled for June 12th at 2:00. It will still be held at The Pavilion at St. Mary's Church and the Shrine of our Lady of Fatima (18230 Barnesville Rd, Barnesville, MD). Please bring your memories of him to share. It will an outdoors event if weather permits.
Donations can be made in Bob's memory to the Asian Classics Input Project Robert Taylor Memorial Fund... https://asianlegacylibrary.org/donate/robert-taylor-memorial-fund/. The Dr. Robert Taylor Memorial Fund will provide critical resources to ensure that ACIP can continue to meet its archival obligations as technology evolves, by supporting staff and infrastructure costs that are required to create and maintain their world-class digital library.
NOTE: ACIP has merged with the Asian Legacy Library (ALL). From Jeff Wallman of ALL: We are actively promoting this campaign and of course Geshe-la is actively promoting it. It will continue, as the mission of ACIP lives on in ALL, and actually technology infrastructure, as the work that Robert Taylor engaged in and made flourish, is as important now as ever. Robert James Taylor (Bob) passed away peacefully July 29, 2020 at the age of 94. He is survived by his wife, Barbara of Gaithersburg, MD and his 4 children (Pamela-Lynne Virginia (Andrew), Rani Marie (David), Jeffery Durlin, and Braeton Grant (Debra)) as well as 10 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren. He was preceded by his parents, Leon James Taylor and Hazel Sarah Hickok, as well as his sister, Marjorie Alice and former wife Carol Julia Luft.
Bob grew up in Cazenovia, NY and New London, CT. He served in the army at the end of WWII as 'Forward Orientation and Surveyor'. He trained at Camp Hood then was stationed at a bridge (Occupation Duty) in Germany at the end of the war. They were so low on ammunition that he was only given 2 rounds for his gun.A tank came by and he asked if they had extra rifle ammunition. They did and he traded cigarettes for the ammunition (he did not smoke, but he kept cigarettes on hand to barter with).
He attended Virginia Polytechnical Institute (VPI), Blacksburg, VA to earn his master’s degree and taught 'bonehead' math to Undergraduates. He lived in Rockville, MD before returning to VPI to get a doctorate in Statistics. As a doctorate student he worked as an Associate Professor in charge of a research grant.
He started his working career with the National Institute of Health as a Statistician.However, most of his career was spent at the US Department of Transportation for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He was Branch Chief of Crash Avoidance, Trend and Exposure Analysis, MAD, NCSA working in Washington, DC. His group was instrumental in forecasting future car accidents and proving the value of seat belts.
After retirement he worked to help establish The Asian Classics Input Project (ACIP) as Assistant Director. ACIP is dedicated to locating, cataloging, digitally preserving, and freely distributing rare and precious collections of Tibetan manuscripts. Among other things, Bob traveled to India to teach monks, many of whom had never seen a computer, to transliterate old manuscripts into researchable documents for scholars.
Bob will be remembered for his intelligence and sense of humor (he was quick with the one-liners). He was described by a close friend as ‘full of integrity, good humor, kindness, and generosity’.
