Robert R. Elliott Jr.

Lt. Col. Robert R. Elliott Jr. USMC (Ret.), 91, passed away peacefully Saturday, April 30, at his home in Interlaken with Therese Driscoll Elliott, his loving wife and companion of 69 years, and his family at his side.

Bob was born on January 3, 1925 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, son of Robert R. and Mildred Carr Elliott. In 1942 he graduated from Winchester High School and entered the University of Maine. Later that year he enlisted in the Marine Corps, and in 1943 was transferred to Cornell University under the US Government V-12 Navy College Training Program. In 1945 he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant and was stationed on mainland China in preparation for the anticipated US troop invasion of the Japanese Islands. He was discharged from active duty in 1946. Bob received his B.A. from Cornell in 1947 and a year later, his Master’s in Education, also from Cornell. In September of 1948, he began his teaching career at Interlaken Central School. He was recalled to active duty in 1950 for the Korean Conflict. In 1952 he was discharged from active duty and became a USMC reservist. He retired from the Marine Corps as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1965.

Bob and Therese married in 1946 and moved to Interlaken in 1948. They have lived in the same house on Prospect Street since then, except during his two-year recall in the early 1950’s. Bob’s passion was his career as teacher, mentor, and guidance counselor to many decades of high school students at Interlaken Central and then South Seneca.

Bob became a fixture at Interlaken Central High School, teaching classes including U.S. history and world history, and the entire mathematics curriculum. He later became the guidance counselor at Interlaken Central and continued in that role at South Seneca Central School. He retired in 1982. He remained in contact and maintained friendships with many, many of his students throughout his lifetime, and never lost his ability to remember them and their graduating class. As many said time and time again “he made a difference”.

Bob’s first priority and passion was his family. He was never happier than when with them and with his many friends, both at his “uptown house” on Prospect Street and the “lake house” at Bainbridge Beach on Cayuga Lake. He delighted in traveling both in the U.S. and abroad, often with family, often with friends, but always with Therese. Bob and Therese developed deep and lasting friendships at every stage of their lives together: the Marine Corps, Cornell, their teaching days, their neighbors in Interlaken and at Bainbridge Beach, and their travels throughout the world.

He is survived by his wife, Therese, and his four children Robert R. (Jean) Elliott, III, Ann D. (Steve Greenstein) Elliott, Therese E. (Jean-Claude Geeraert, deceased) Elliott, and Richard “Gig” (Christine) Elliott, and is pre-deceased by his daughter Mary Kathryn Elliott. He is also survived by his adored grandchildren, “the girls”, Anne, Stacey, Candice, Emma, Michaela and Katie.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:00am on Thursday, May 5, 2016 at St. Francis Solanus Catholic Church, 3600 Orchard Street, Interlaken by Father Bernard Maloney. Prayers of committal will follow in Lake View Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions in Bob’s memory be made to the Interlaken Fire Department, PO Box 274, Interlaken, NY 14847, the Interlaken Public Library, PO Box 317, Interlaken, NY 14847, or the Lake View Cemetery, PO Box 35, Interlaken, NY 14847.