Robert “Bob” DeSieno
Professor Emeritus of Computer Science Robert “Bob” DeSieno, a strong proponent of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields who helped grow Skidmore’s computer science program, died April 17, 2022. He was 88.
Bob, who retired in 2006, died peacefully at Greenwich Hospital in Greenwich, Connecticut. Tasked with expanding curricular offerings in computer science, he joined Skidmore’s faculty in 1983.
“Bob helped strengthen the department both in terms of personnel and curriculum and helped to grow the computer science program into what it has become today,” said Professor of Mathematics Mark Hoffman, who joined the department under Bob’s leadership.
Bob believed strongly in the centrality of the sciences in a well-rounded liberal arts curriculum and contributed to numerous initiatives to advance the sciences at Skidmore: He played a central role in the Science Planning Group, which was charged with promoting STEM at Skidmore, and founded the Office of Sponsored Research, which allows faculty to support their research with external funding.
“The culture of sciences — the amount and quality of research — has really changed at Skidmore thanks in part to Bob’s efforts,” noted Professor of Mathematics Mark Huibregtse. “Bob also played an important role in the idea of involving students in collaborative research with faculty.”
As the Skidmore community was planning for its future in the early 2000s, Bob also insisted to a Middle States external review team that Skidmore should prioritize investment in STEM fields.
“If it were not for his persistent, insistent advocacy for science at the College, we would not have the Center for Integrated Sciences today,” said Associate Dean of the Faculty and Associate Professor of Classics Michael Arnush.
Born on Sept. 1, 1933, in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Bob grew up in Schenectady, New York, where he graduated from Union College. He served in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed in Japan. He completed his doctorate in chemistry at the University of California, Davis, in 1966.
Throughout his career, Bob demonstrated a strong commitment to interdisciplinary learning. At Westminster College in the 1960s and 1970s, he contributed to a multidisciplinary program bringing together literary scholars with natural scientists. A pioneer in academic computing, he built his first personal computer from a kit in the mid-1970s, and he taught his students to connect it to their lab experiments and graph their results. Before coming to Skidmore, he directed a computer initiative at Davidson College.
“The roots of Skidmore College are deeply embedded in the arts — and they should be,” Bob once said in an oral history interview. “But I argued in the early days that you can’t have a liberal arts education if you don’t have a strong education in the sciences as well.”
Bob is survived by his son, Timothy B. DeSieno, Tim’s wife, Joanne De Silva, and by three grandsons, Jacob, Joshua, and Zachary. His wife of 56 years, Marcia B. DeSieno, died in 2018. His elder son, Robert B. DeSieno, died in 2020.
A testament to Bob’s continuing commitment to Skidmore, he and his late wife established the student prizes for excellence in computer science and mathematics, which continue to bear their name.