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Remembering Robert C. "Bob" Nusbaum
Nusbaum was a former Trustee and Founding Fellow of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom
University News | November 5, 2018
Hampton Roads civic leader Robert C. "Bob" Nusbaum, a former Virginia Wesleyan Trustee and Founding Fellow of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, passed away on October 30, 2018.
Nusbaum was the driving force behind the creation of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom (CSRF) at Virginia Wesleyan, first proposing the idea for the Center in a letter he wrote on November 14, 1995:
"I venture to guess that more persons have been slaughtered in the name of religion than from any other cause...in this continuing saga of man's inhumanity to man, the one bright light that goes beyond mere tolerance is Jefferson's Statute for Religious Freedom. It laid the foundation for the First Amendment, and has served as a beacon for all enlightened constitutions ever since."
Because of his vision and persistence, the CSRF became a reality less than a year later. Bob Nusbaum and his brother, V.H. "Pooch" Nusbaum, later established the Justine L. Nusbaum Endowed Lectureship in honor of their mother, also well known for her lifelong volunteer service and dedication to humanitarian causes.
In 2016, Bob established an endowment enabling the CSRF to hold an annual student essay contest in which participants reflect on the importance of religious freedom either in this country or around the world. He shared his own worry that many young people do not understand the heritage of religious freedom as well as his wish that every VWU student would graduate with an understanding of the challenges and obstacles that humanity has overcome in attaining religious freedom, and to have an appreciation of the need to be ever vigilant to maintain those rights.
In recognition of his immeasurable service to the institution, Virginia Wesleyan awarded Bob an honorary degree (Doctor of Laws) in 2003, and officially named him as the Founding Fellow of the CSRF during the 2016 Justine L. Nusbaum Lecture. In 2013, he was the recipient of the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities Humanitarian Award.
Bob served on an astonishing range of civic organizations, nearly always in leadership roles, and often as president or chair. In the late 1950s and into the 1960s, he publicly fought against "massive resistance" to the integration of the Norfolk public schools. For the short term, he helped raise money to hire a lawyer for African-American school children and their families and organized business and community support for reopening the schools. For the long term, he founded a program called "The Aid Fund" which provided scholarships to African-American students struggling against racial discrimination in Virginia's colleges and universities.
In the 1980s, he responded creatively to the controversy surrounding the new in-vitro fertilization program at EVMS. He founded a group known as Virginians Organized for Informed Community Expression, or VOICE, to promote public education about this program. He also helped establish the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine Foundation and served for several years as chairman of its board.
These are just a few examples of the unique characteristics Bob exhibited which illustrate the sensitivity of his interest in the CSRF. Dr. Craig Wansink, Joan P. and Macon F. Brock, Jr. Director of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, and Kelly Jackson, Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, provide further reflection in their Letter to the Editor, "," published in the Virginian-Pilot on November 3..
91风月楼 is grateful for Bob Nusbaum's numerous contributions to the community and the University, which he served so faithfully, and extends sincere sympathy to his wife, Linda, and two sons, Bob Jr. and Bill.
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