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Robert Russell Radway

Date of Death: March 4, 2026

Date of Birth: November 25, 1943

Biography:

Robert (Bob) Russell Radway died on March 4, 2026. He was 82 years old.

Bob was born on November 25, 1943, in St. Paul MN. His mother, Elizabeth O'Leary, was a premedical student, and his father, Laurence (Larry) Radway, was a graduate student in political science. He lived his early years in St. Paul with his mother. Following his parents' divorce, he was raised by his father and loving adoptive mother, Patricia (Patty) Headland Radway, settling in Hanover NH, where Larry taught in the department of government at Dartmouth College and Patty was active in the community and served for a time as Hanover's town clerk. Bob recalled many happy childhood memories of skiing at the Dartmouth Skiway and skating on Occom Pond along with younger siblings Carol, Mike, and Deb. His mother also remarried (Samuel Corson) and he later met sisters Candace and Olivia. 

Bob graduated from Hanover High School in 1961. He attended Harvard College where he majored in Slavic Languages and Literature. In 1964, at the height of the Cold War, he traveled to Russia and Ukraine with a group of students on a program called the Experiment in International Living, an experience that left a deep imprint and about which he reminisced for the rest of his life. Upon graduation from Harvard in 1965, he worked for a year at NASA before attending law school at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1969.

Bob worked briefly as an attorney in Boston before embarking on a highly varied career that, over the years, involved working as a Russian translator of scientific and technical works, operating a forklift, assembling semiconductors at MIT, and driving a rural newspaper route, among other jobs. His interests were eclectic and he was a lifelong learner. His children recall him taking organic chemistry classes "for fun" at Harvard Extension School when they were young.

Bob lived in Boston and Cambridge MA, where he married his first wife, Barbara Piotti, in 1981. Jessica and John were born in 1982 and 1984. In 1986, the family moved to Farmingdale, ME. He and Barbara later divorced and he married his second wife, Michelle (Mickey) O'Malley in 1992, moving to North Monmouth ME and later Phoenix AZ. Mickey died in 2024. Bob spent his final years at Bolster Heights Assisted Living in Auburn ME, where he kept constant company with dear friend Melody Ham. 

Bob is predeceased by his parents and sister Olivia Corson. He is survived by his siblings Carol Tobias (Michael Tobias), Michael Radway (Stephanie Vardavas), Deborah Radway, and Candace Corson (George Knowles), children Jessica Radway and John Radway (Megan Marsh), grandchildren Nora and Isaac Murtagh and Edie Marsh-Radway, and many nieces and nephews.