Robert Edward Costello Jr. ’43

Robert Edward Costello Jr. ’43 died May 20, 2014, in Amagansett, New York. Bob grew up in Jackson Heights, New York, and graduated from the Dwight School in Manhattan, where he was class president, on the student council and played basketball. At Dartmouth he majored in English drama and was art editor of Jack-O-Lantern, a member of the Dartmouth Players, on the Council of Student Organizations and a member of Theta Delta Chi. In 1943 Bob was recruited by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services and spent two and a half years in North Africa and Europe. He was called a “codes and ciphers man.” While overseas he met and married first wife, Mary. After the war he earned an M.F.A. at Yale Drama School. Bob then spent a few years as a professor in a theater research unit at Stevens Institute of Technology. Later, in the 1980s, he was a tenured professor of TV production at NYU’s Institute of Film and Television. Bob’s career was largely spent working in almost every aspect of theater, and TV—as director of stage and TV, book illustrator, an advisor for the Paris Exposition and scene, lighting and theater designer. He was involved with many famous productions including Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Mr. Peepers, The Patty Duke Show, The Adams Chronicles (he received a Peabody Award), the Armstrong Circle Theater and soap operas such as Dark Shadows. A faithful Dartmouth Alumni Fund volunteer, Bob was also a fraternity-sorority agent for 10 years. Bob’s survived by his third wife, Sybil (former marriages to Mary and Barbara ended in divorce); children Martha, Julia, Kathleen and Ned; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.