Retired Chief of Ophthalmology at Boston Children’s Hospital
ROBB, Richard Moore, MD
January 10, 1935 – November 6, 2023 Richard Moore Robb, a retired chief of Ophthalmology at Boston Children’s Hospital, died peacefully at home in Brookline, on November 6, 2023. He was 88.
Born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the second son of Eugene and Josephine Robb, he was raised in Bedford and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Princeton University in 1956 with a degree in History. At Princeton, he was a member of Campus Club and an enthusiastic member of the marching band. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Influenced by his Ophthalmologist uncle, Dr. Philip Landers, he chose Ophthalmology as a specialty. He was selected for a residency at Massachusetts Eye and
Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, under the leadership of Dr. David Cogan, an influential mentor in Dick’s early years. This included an additional year working in MEEI’s Howe Laboratory. He later did a fellowship in eye pathology under Dr. Toichiro Kuwabara at the NIH.
During a summer program at the NIH, while still a medical student, he met his future wife, Lucy Leinbach, who at the time was working for Congressman George McGovern as part of the Wellesley-Vassar internship in Government. They married in 1960, and settled in Boston for the start of his training and her graduate program in education at Harvard.
At the end of his residency, Dick was asked by Dr. Cogan to join the Harvard faculty at what was at the time the Longwood outpatient practices of Ophthalmology, a satellite to the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He established himself at Boston Children’s Hospital and became its first full-time Pediatric Ophthalmologist. The field of Pediatric Ophthalmology was in its infancy at the time. Dick was one of its most important early pioneers, focusing on strabismus surgery and juvenile cataracts. He gradually built a Department of
Ophthalmology at Boston Children’s, becoming its first Ophthalmologist in Chief in 1969 and starting a fellowship that has trained many Pediatric Ophthalmologist chairs around the country.
Dr. Julia Haller, Ophthalmologist in Chief of Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia says “Dr. Robb was an iconic figure, admired and emulated by a generation of Harvard Medical students, as well as by his colleagues in our field of Ophthalmology. He was an example of the physician ideal, clinically astute, empathetic and kind and his leadership is fittingly embodied by the endowed chair in his honor held in perpetuity by the Chair of Ophthalmology at Boston Children’s Hospital. Right out of central casting in appearance, he was a warm and engaging colleague, beloved by patients and their families.” Dr. David Hunter, his successor at BCH and Richard M. Robb Chair of Ophthalmology, writes, “he was chivalrous, courteous and honorable, noted for his rock solid demeanor, his kindness, and his quiet good humor.”
Outside of his professional life he was, first and foremost, a wonderful husband and father. Quiet and kind, his devotion to and steadfast presence in his family’s life was the bedrock of a happy home in Brookline for many decades.
Wishing to take advantage of Boston’s proximity to the ocean, and with no previous sailing experience, he became an avid sailor. After many sailing vacations in the Caribbean, he bought his own boat from the Commodore of the Newport Yacht Club in 1976. He sailed it through the Cape Cod Canal to Boston just as the Tall Ships arrived in Newport Harbor for the bicentennial, a trip often relived for its audaciousness. He sailed Tangle in Boston Harbor, Buzzards Bay and the Maine coast for many years. He loved being on the water and was an avid student of the complex geography of the New England waterways.
Dick was an accomplished musician, playing first the baritone horn and slide trombone. In his thirties, he took up the cello, studying with Mischa Nieland of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In his later years, he returned to brass, learning to play the euphonium. He played in the Brookline Community Band, which had its origins in the First Corps of Cadets of Massachusetts chartered in 1741. Dick uncovered its history, through his native curiosity. He also played in the Concord Band for many years.
He was a long-time member of the Brookline Thursday Club, whose members took turns presenting topics of interest over dinner on Thursday nights. He poured over his research and presentations on such topics as the Whiskey Rebellion, the Yellow Fever epidemic in Philadelphia and the origins of the coffee trade.
Dick and Lucy were avid travelers. One of their most spectacular trips was to follow the Silk Road. With Helen Keller International, he consulted in Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Morocco.
He is survived by his beloved wife, Lucy; his children, Henry, Erica and William; and their spouses, Cliona, Warren and Sybil; as well as his six grandchildren, Liam, Alexandra, Eliza, Eleanor, Charlie and James.
A Memorial Service for Dick will be held at 10 am, on December 2, 2023, at Trinity Church, Boston.
In lieu of flowers, donations in
Dr. Robb’s name may be sent to the Robb-Peterson Lectureship Fund, at Boston Children’s Hospital, www.bostonchildrens.org/giveinmemory Care Dimensions Hospice, 75 Sylvan St., Suite B-102, Danvers, MA, 01923 or the Brookline Community Band, Mary McConnell, treasurer, 76 Williston Rd., Brookline, MA 02445.