Robert A. Firger

Bob Firger – a devoted father, grandfather, husband, explorer of the world and of ideas, and a man whose boundless curiosity was matched only by his extraordinary capacity for love – passed away at his home in Bloomfield, Connecticut, on July 5, 2026. He was 79.

Bob embraced life as a grand adventure and a celebration. He delighted in journeys across continents, through science and history, into art studios and courtrooms, gardens and boardrooms, and above all into the lives of the people he loved. Whether sailing the Galápagos, studying the psychology of perception, building companies, creating sculpture, or gathering family around the dinner table, he approached life with wonder, generosity, gratitude, and an infectious enthusiasm.

Above all, Bob loved to love. More than any accomplishment, discovery, or destination, love was the organizing principle of his life. He was preceded in death by the two great loves of his life, his wives Betsy Heilpern Firger (1948–1998) and Celia Calhoun (1954–2019). He is survived by his children, Dan Firger, Josh Firger, and Lindsay Firger Hinson; their spouses, Sonal Bains, Laura Moreno Cabanillas, and Jay Hinson; and his cherished grandchildren, Indus Bains, Max Firger Moreno, Thomas Firger Moreno, and Taylor Betsy Hinson, each of whom brought him immeasurable pride, delight, and joy.

Bob's lifelong appetite for discovery emerged early. At seven, he skipped a grade so his family could spend nine months traveling through thirty-eight states. At twelve, he spent a year as a schoolboy in London while his father taught on a Fulbright exchange, a formative experience he happily recounted to his family over the decades. Childhood chemistry sets soon gave way to real scientific research: At sixteen, Bob walked into a leading Boston hospital laboratory and offered to work for free. Before long, he was on the payroll as a research assistant while still attending Newton High School.

His curiosity brought him from pre-med studies at McGill to Brandeis, where he graduated summa cum laude with a degree in psychology, and then to Harvard, where he earned a master's degree in experimental psychology. He conducted pioneering research on visual perception, taught film studies, and served as a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health. Throughout his life, Bob had a remarkable gift for connecting one experience to the next. Science led naturally to photography and filmmaking; psychology to art; law to entrepreneurship; invention to scholarship. To him, these were never separate pursuits, but different ways of exploring the world.

At twenty-one, Bob helped conceive and raise funding for the 1968 Harvard-Darwin Expedition, retracing Charles Darwin's voyage aboard the Beagle during a one-hundred-day expedition while filming a documentary. He island hopped the Galápagos, flew by seaplane to some of the continent's most remote places, rounded Cape Horn aboard a Chilean naval vessel, and fell in love with South America, a love that brought him back more than a dozen times over the years.

After marrying Betsy in 1973, Bob earned his law degree from the University of Connecticut, where he served as an Associate Editor of the Connecticut Law Review. Bob later served as Associate Counsel and Senior Vice President at a major Hartford bank before joining the law firm of McDermid, Reynolds & Glissman.

Yet the scientist, artist, and inventor within him never disappeared. Over more than four decades he created welded-metal sculpture, later embracing collage, pottery, and glassblowing. In his seventh decade he founded Cognate Nutritionals, a ketogenic supplement startup focused on brain health, taught entrepreneurship at UConn Law School, advised young companies, and filed multiple patents. Along the way he also authored three books – Ten Thousand Presents, It's Time, and The Darwin-68 Expedition – each reflecting in its own way a lifelong fascination with love, time, science, history, and exploration.

Bob believed deeply in giving back, serving on the boards of numerous educational, civic, and arts organizations, including the Wadsworth Atheneum, Real Art Ways, the Harvard Club of Connecticut, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council.

But it was in family that Bob found his fullest expression.

He and Betsy shared twenty-six years of marriage, raising three children in a home filled with books, art, spirited conversation, laughter, and adventure. Together they traveled widely, collecting memories, ceremonial masks, and a shared passion for exploring the ancient world. When Betsy was diagnosed with cancer, Bob left his banking career to care for her and their children full time, embodying a steadfast devotion to loved ones that defined his life. After her passing, he honored her memory through his writing, philanthropy, and enduring gratitude for the years they shared.

Years later, Bob met Celia when they volunteered together to design a sculpture garden at the West Hartford Art League. They blended their families into a joyful household of seven and built a spirited life in their historic home, surrounded by gardens, art, dogs, cats, horses, and even a donkey. They filled their years with travel, dancing, entertaining friends and neighbors, and extraordinary holiday celebrations. Friends often remarked that simply watching them dance together made them believe in great love. When Celia, like Betsy, developed cancer Bob remained by her side, devoted to the end.

Bob's delight in life was contagious. He possessed an astonishing memory for music, able to recall lyrics from hundreds of songs decades after first hearing them, and he was rarely happier than when singing along or introducing friends to a favorite tune. His quick wit, endless supply of puns, playful storytelling, and infectious laugh made every gathering brighter. Whether preparing an elaborate meal, raising a toast, leading a spirited conversation, or finding humor in life's inevitable surprises, Bob had a gift for turning ordinary moments into celebrations.

For most of his adult life, Bob kept a running list of his joys, dreams, accomplishments, and gratitudes. By the end it had grown to nearly 250 entries: more than fifty countries explored, books written, sculptures created, inventions patented, companies founded, and gardens cultivated. Yet the first entries—and the ones that never changed—were the people he loved.

Bob delighted in assembling a life that resembled the great Renaissance "cabinets of curiosity" he so admired: bringing together science and art, history and invention, travel and learning, beauty and wonder. His greatest legacy is the curiosity he inspired, the generosity he practiced, the adventures he shared, the laughter he sparked, and the love he gave so freely.

A celebration of Bob’s life will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Bob’s memory to The Greater Hartford Arts Council.