ROBERT MASON AGARD ’39
ROBERT MASON AGARD was born April 1, 1916, in Williamstown, Mass. He was the son of Harry L. Agard, Wesleyan Class of 1904. Bob was educated at Deerfield Academy, majored in history at Wesleyan University, and earned master’s degrees in library science at Columbia and history at Brown. Bob and Phyllis Fairweather were married in 1942 and spent the World War II years in Washington, were Bob was a reference assistant at the Library of Congress.
When the war ended, Bob became college librarian, working at Ripon College and then at Earlham, where he and Phyllis, as Bob’s father said, “got involved with these Quakers,” recognizing their alignment of faith and worship with political conviction and commitment to peace and social justice. They both joined West Richmond Friends Meeting and transferred to the Middle Connecticut Valley Meeting (now Mt. Toby Meeting) in 1961 when the family moved to Amherst, where Bob was chief of reader services at the University of Massachusetts. By then they had four daughters: Anne (Annie), Ellen, Jennette (Jennie) and Susan (Sukey). A fifth daughter was added when they became foster parents of Chamnan Koy, one of a group of Cambodian refugee teenagers resettled in Amherst in 1982.
The family moved to Vermont and Bennington Meeting when Bob became Librarian of Bennington College during the 1970s, and back to Amherst and Mt. Toby after he retired. Eventually Bob and Phyllis had 10 grandchildren: Amber Miller (who died in 1997); Katy and Emily Silgard; Tristan, Molly, and Meg Krause: and Tiffany, Melanie, Emily and Andrew Tan.
Bob loved his home and his family, his music, gardening, hiking, skiing, and helping to resettle wartime refugees–Latvians in Ripon, Germans and Hungarians at Earlham, and Cambodians in Amherst. Phyllis once counted at least 13 Cambodian children who called him Grandpa, and a few young Camdobian women who called him dad. He loved his work and eight or more young people became librarians because of his influence. He was active in many Quaker Monthly Meeting and Yearly Meeting committees, was a member of the board of directors of the New England branch of the American Friends Service Committee, and was, with Phyllis, co-clerk of Mt. Toby Meeting in the early 1980s.
Bob died at 87, a quiet and peaceful death from complications related to pneumonia. We remember him as a warm and gentle man, kind and wise in his advice, and blessed with a wry sense of humor that never deserted him. He had an open, inquiring mind, and his knowledge of the world was wide and deep. He dealt with the parcel of strong women in his life with grace and dignity. Toward the end of his life he developed disabilities in vision, hearing, and memory, which he coped with creatively and gallantly. We miss him very much and will love him always.
–Phyllis Agard and their five daughters