Robert E. Moeller ’71

Robert E. Moeller ’71, M.D., died on May 22, 2011, after a two-year battle with prostate cancer. That the news took so long to arrive in Hanover perhaps reflects Robert’s character as a quiet, inward-directed person devoted to scientific research. He never married and left no dependents, yet he was welcoming to all with a keenly dry sense of humor that earned him many friends who mourn and miss him. He was born in 1949 and grew up near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He early on loved and roamed the countryside of western Pennsylvania, and at Dartmouth he focused that outdoor interest on ecological studies. After Dartmouth he earned a Ph.D. from Cornell in aquatic ecology and focused his academic research on limnology (the study of lake ecology and physics). For many years he was on the faculty of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and in the mid-2000s he moved to Miami University in Ohio to devote himself purely to research, in which he was engaged almost to the day of his death. He is survived by his father and three sisters. A memorial fund for him has been set up at the Lacawac Sanctuary Foundation. Friends and colleagues interested in contributing can send a check made out to “LSMF, Lacawac Sanctuary Moeller Fund” and mail it to LSMF, Lacawac Sanctuary Foundation, 94 Sanctuary Road, Lake Ariel, PA 18436. The funds go toward stipends for young scientists doing research at the site in northeastern Pennsylvania where Robert pursued much of his own research.