Robert A Goldwater

Robert A. Goldwater, better known in Westchester by the Bob Goldwater byline that topped his bridge column in Sunday newspapers including the Journal News for 25 years, died November 6. He was 88 years old.
His popular bridge column started in September, 1976, when the Gannett Newspapers launched the Sunday edition. It ran until 2001, earning several bridge column awards from the American Contract Bridge League, the governing body of duplicate bridge in North America. Mr. Goldwater was involved in five different aspects of bridge: as a journalist, certified director, certified teacher, Diamond Life Master player with more than 5,000 master points and administrator as a member of the Westchester Contract Bridge Association Board of Directors for 38 years, including two years as president and numerous other positions. When he retired from the unit board in 2004, he was cited as “Mr. Bridge of Westchester.” He also served on the ACBL Board of Governors, an advisory group, for six years. Robert Albert Goldwater was born in Plattsburgh, NY, on December 24, 1924, to the late Alex and Lillian (Berg) Goldwater. A Westchester resident in White Plains, Scarsdale and Hartsdale since 1929, he graduated from White Plains High School in 1942 and attended the University of North Carolina for a year before Army service during World War II. In the European Theater of Operations for almost two years, he was stationed in London during the June, 1944, buzz-bomb raids, went to France in July, 1944, one month after D-Day, and wound up with five campaign stars on his ETO ribbon before being discharged in December, 1945, 12 days before his 21st birthday. Back in college at UNC, he majored in journalism and was sports editor of the campus newspaper, the “Daily Tar Heel,” in his senior year. He graduated in June 1948.
He was a reporter and a copy editor of the White Plains Reporter Dispatch for six years, then worked in New York City in the NBC Television Press Department for 12 years as publicity writer for the coverage of all sports events and also for numerous popular entertainment series that included “You Bet Your Life” (starring Groucho Marx), “The Man From UNCLE,” “Get Smart” (Don Adams), and the longtime daytime drama, “Days of Our Lives.”
He later worked in public relations positions for the New York State Olympic Committee, Xerox Corporation, the New York Skyliners and Generals professional soccer teams and as sports information director for Fordham University.
Goldwater was married in 1951 to the former Eileen Pierce of Scarsdale. They were divorced in 1962.
He served as a coach of baseball, softball and basketball teams in the Scarsdale recreation leagues in which his three children participated while in grades 5 through 8, and was a member of Scarsdale Boy Scout Troop 9 committee. He was a longtime member, dating back to childhood, of Congregation Kol Ami, formerly known as the Jewish Community Center, in White Plains. He is survived by his longtime companion, Peggy Mendes of Hartsdale; two sons, Robert of Bethesda, MD, and James of Alexandria, VA; a daughter, Joanne Goldwater Dement of Lexington Park, MD; and five grandchildren. The funeral will be at Congregation Kol Ami on Friday, November 8 at 10 a.m. and burial will be at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Hawthorne.