Robert S. Ballantyne

Bob attended schools in Windsor, until transferring to Kimball Union Academy in Meriden, New Hampshire, where he graduated in 1959. He attended Muskingum College in Ohio where he received his B.A. degree in 1964. He completed his junior year of college in Madrid, Spain, which began his lifelong affinity for the Spanish language.

After a few years teaching languages at his secondary school alma mater, Kimball Union Academy (1964-1966), he entered the Master’s Degree program in languages at Middlebury College. In 1966, while making the trans-Atlantic voyage to Spain, as part of that Master’s Degree program, he met fellow Spanish language graduate student France-Marie Trepanier of Quebec City, Quebec. The couple married a few months later in Madrid. In 1967, after achieving their Master’s Degrees in Spanish Language and Literature from Middlebury, they moved to Rhode Island, where Bob taught at St. George’s School in Newport for two years. In 1970, Bob graduated from the American Graduate School of International Management, this time with a Master’s Degree in International Business. He then was posted to Beirut, Lebanon by Kelley-Springfield Tire Company, where he resided for five years. While in Beirut, his three children were born. Sadly, the first-born lived briefly. As a civil war began in Beirut, the family had a subsequent job posting in Johannesburg, South Africa. In 1977, Bob and his wife divorced. In 1978, Bob married Nancy Cummings Bickford, and soon after they moved to Kuwait City, Kuwait where he carried out sales for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company throughout the Middle East until 1980. The couple divorced in 1984. Upon leaving his international assignments, he returned to a teaching position, first at The Gunnery (1980-1981) in Washington Connecticut, followed by Kimball Union Academy (1981-1992), where he taught Spanish and coached. He then moved to Florida and Arizona, where he worked in real estate and in the hospitality industry until his retirement in 2016, when he moved to San Antonio to be near his sister, Martha.

Robert is survived by his two children: Liza Ballantyne lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her partner, Martin Gravel, and their sons, Samuel and Gabriel. Patrick Ballantyne lives in Ottawa, Ontario with his partner, Julie Gravelle, and their children, Bastien, Lidia, and Pascale. Bob also is survived by his siblings, Mary Gentle and husband Stephen Gentle of Edgartown, Massachusetts; Martha Ballantyne of San Antonio, Texas; and William Ballantyne and wife Donna Sweaney of Windsor, Vermont; as well as by two nephews and four grandnieces and grandnephews. While living in Arizona, Bob was a significant father figure in the lives of Mir’iam and Lidia Lopez.

Many will remember Bob for his dry wit and his persistent struggle to improve at golf.

He enjoyed writing, studying history, watching football, and woodworking. He will be remembered fondly, not only by his family and friends, but by the hundreds of students whose lives he touched in the classrooms throughout his career.

As a redhead who worked for several student summers as a lifeguard, Bob struggled throughout his life with skin cancer, and he eventually succumbed to pancreatic cancer.

His family wishes to thank the staff of Brookdale Assisted Living Facility and Opus Care hospice services in San Antonio, and to express our sincere appreciation for the loving care and support that his sister Martha, and his daughter and son provided as Bob moved through the final stage of his life.

A private family service will take place in the future. Learning early in life from his parents about the importance of giving to others, Bob would ask that people make a donation to their favorite charity.