SHOREHAM — After a friendship of almost forty years, it is with a heavy but grateful heart and an appreciation for a life well lived that I share news of the passing of our beloved Bob Maguire of Hand’s Cove in Shoreham. J. Robert Maguire was born in 1924 to John Probst Maguire and Cecilia Marie Reilly Maguire, the third of five children. Bob was predeceased by his parents and his siblings.
A graduate of the Newman School in Lakewood, N.J., Bob enrolled at Princeton University in 1942. At the end of his first year, he interrupted his studies to join the Army. Stationed at various bases in the South Pacific, Bob developed malaria as the war was ending. He was hospitalized in Japan for more than six months until he was well enough to return home in February of 1946. Later that year, Bob returned to Princeton under the GI Bill, and that summer he attended the Paris Peace Conference as an observer for the State Department. In 1947 he attended Cambridge University before graduating from Princeton with honors in September 1948.
Bob returned to Europe in October 1948, after being appointed to the Displaced Persons Commission. He served with the Commission in Frankfurt, Augsburg, Hamburg and Bremen, before transferring to the ECA (the Economic Cooperation Administration) in Frankfurt, where he worked until the autumn of 1950. He then returned to the United States to enroll in Yale Law School. Graduating in 1953, he joined the firm of White & Case in New York City and began a successful career as a corporate attorney. 
Bob did not travel the road of life alone. In 1949, while in Paris, Bob met Pauline “Polly” Thayer and they became the loves of each other’s lives. Bob and Polly married in 1954 and they spent the last 67 years together trying, often successfully, to make their world a better place. Their children, James Robert Maguire, Jr., Pauline Maguire Robison and George Ezra Batcheller Maguire, each enjoy their own successful lives and families. Bob Jr. married Katherine Bucknell and gave life to Bobby (James Robert III), Lucy and Jack; “Young Polly” brought daughter May into the family; and George and his wife Cecily had sons George and Henry, who completed the circle of children and grandchildren that became the special constellations of Bob and Polly’s universe.
In 1963 Bob, Polly and their young family embarked on “a road less traveled by” when they chose to leave New York City and move to Shoreham. Bob had natural skill as a counselor, advisor and friend to clients, family and community, who all appreciated the wisdom and integrity he brought to complex problems. Bob and Polly showed a fierce love of their Shoreham-Lake Champlain community. Bob led the successful effort to oppose the construction of a nuclear power-plant in historic and environmentally sensitive East Bay. In so doing, he preserved the Mount Independence historic site, where each summer the J. Robert Maguire lecture is presented in his honor.  Quiet, thoughtful, patient and articulate, it is fair to say that Bob won the respect and admiration of all, and endeared himself to those with whom he was in intimate association.
J. Robert Maguire became one of the nation’s foremost historians. He was an acknowledged expert in the study and interpretation of the American Revolution. His research and writing about Benedict Arnold and John Andre have left a well-marked trail for other historians to follow. Living for more than a half-century on the farm from where Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold and the Green Mountain Boys launched their surprise raid on British-held Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775, it is not surprising that Bob felt he and his family lived amongst the legends who forged the nation. No serious historian of that era failed to show up at Bob and Polly’s home to seek their perspective and advice, and for more than two decades Bob served as a rare outside advisor and board member of the Fort Ticonderoga Museum.
While most historians aspire to master a single topic well enough to be considered an expert in that field, Bob achieved this status in at least two other subjects. He was considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the “Dreyfus Affair,” an international scandal in which a French artillery officer was falsely accused of treason, and on the complex life of Oscar Wilde, the Irish poet and playwright. Bob was a remarkable scholar who produced his last book on the eve of his 90th birthday, when the much-acclaimed Ceremonies of Bravery was published by the Oxford University Press.
Always energetic and adventurous, in 1967 Bob participated with a group of friends in a canoe trip that accomplished the first complete descent of the Caniapiscau River in Northern Quebec, starting at the river’s origin on the Canadian Shield and finishing at it’s mouth in Ungava Bay — a journey of some 458 miles. When Bob was 70, he and Polly climbed the Pic du Vignemale, a 10,820-foot peak in the Pyrenees, and when he turned 80 they returned to climb the 11,168-foot Aneto. 
As the years brought frailty of age, Bob and Polly’s children and grandchildren were always there. They supported their parents not out of obligation but out of the special bond that flows between parents, children and grandchildren. During Bob’s final journey, Polly’s loving dedication was always present and allowed him to remain at home. In this year of the Pandemic, Bob and Polly were able to stay together and their home was never without the presence of at least one of their children or grandchildren.
The family celebrates the life, love and accomplishments of J. Robert Maguire. In addition to his children and grandchildren, Bob leaves behind many beloved nieces, nephews, great nieces and great nephews. He was a devoted son, brother, husband, father, grandfather, uncle and friend who served his country and then studied and wrote its story.
The family would like to suggest that in lieu of flowers, any donations are made to the Platt Memorial Library in Shoreham or to Shoreham First Response.
The family wishes to express its deep gratitude and appreciation to Addison County Home Health and Hospice and to the care-givers who supported Bob in his final days.
Arrangements are under the direction of Sanderson-Duchareme Funeral Home, Middlebury. Online condolences at sandersonfuneralservice.com.◊