CALLAO—Robert N. Lindsey of Callao died on October 28 at VCU in Richmond after sustaining critical injuries in an auto accident a few days earlier. Bob was born in Akron, Ohio, on July 16, 1940.
After college graduation, Bob worked as a printer, a boutique owner, a soldier in Viet Nam, a builder of custom log cabins in upstate New York, and a machinist for Singer.
He moved to Washington, D.C., in the 1980s to work in the campaign of a major presidential candidate. He then found his true vocation in D.C. as a teacher of construction skills to troubled young adults in the city’s Anacostia area. In the two years prior to retirement, Bob served the Environmental Protection Agency as a trainer for regional staff administrators.
When he retired to the Northern Neck in 2003 with his wife, Barbara Shine, Bob became a leader in the Northumberland County Democratic Committee. He also was an ardent volunteer for Friends of the Northumberland Public Library, the NNK Citizens Climate Lobby, The Haven Shelter & Services and other local groups.
Bob was intellectual, philosophical, deeply ethical and freely giving; he tried at every turn to make this region and this world a better place.
Survivors include Shine, his wife of 26 years; daughter, Margaret Hewitt of Orlando, Fla.; daughter, Julia Ross of Newport News; stepdaughter, Marcia Shine Brown of Glen Burnie, Md.; stepsons Robert E. Shine and John N. Shine of Gaithersburg, Md.; and eight grandchildren and step-grandchildren.
A family and friends’ celebration of Bob’s life is planned for mid-December. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers or other gifts, donations be made in Bob’s memory to the Haven Shelter & Services in Warsaw (havenshelter.org) or the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance in Richmond vsdvalliance.org.