LINCOLN — Robert Fuller passed on to his next adventure Feb. 16, 2026. He wanted to write his own obituary, just as he wanted to attend to so many details at the end of his life. Here is what he wrote from his heart:

“My primary objective in writing this obituary is just to say how lucky I was to receive the gift of this long life journey and how lucky to have had my amazing and wonderful family and friends. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I was born June 8, 1946, into a loving farm family at 333 Fuller St. in Ludlow, Mass., in a 150-year-old farmhouse. My early life revolved around life on a small dairy farm with all its joys of discovery. My life was typically carefree until I was old enough to help my father with delivering duties. The family business involved collecting, pasteurizing, and bottling milk and then delivering it door to door. I started to learn what kind of effort and commitment was required to maintain a successful business.

In 1968 I took my first steps toward my lifelong culinary journey. I worked at The Quick and Tasty Restaurant in Ormond Beach Fla., as a cook for six months. It was a classic 60s-style roadside restaurant, with the slogan “you’ll be glad you stopped.”

I attended the Culinary Institute Of America and graduated in 1971. I wanted to travel so I moved to Jackson Hole, Wyo., for a year, cooking at the Cattle Baron Restaurant on the square. I downhill skied and learned to cross country ski in the mountains on 10 feet of snow. In the summer I learned rock climbing skills in the Grand Teton and successfully climbed Baxter’s Pinnacle.

In 1972 I traveled to Laguna Beach, Calif., and worked as a baker at the Cottage Restaurant on the coast highway. I learned to make pottery at the Laguna Beach School of Art, became a vegetarian, let my hair grow, wore earth shoes and became very tan.

Returning home to Ludlow in 1974, I worked at a small French restaurant called Picot’s Place. It was the only time I worked with a French trained chef, Jean-Jaque Gage. I also set up my own Jutetown Pottery Shop in Ludlow and had some success making pottery and giving lessons.

In 1976 I moved to Vermont, which became my heart’s forever home. I became the chef at Mister Up’s Restaurant in Middlebury for six years. I bought 25 acres of land north of town and built my own house. The views of the Adirondacks to the west just north of town reminded me of the Grand Tetons.

In 1982 I bought Pauline’s Kitchen in South Burlington with my first wife. I owned and operated Pauline’s successfully for 26 years, selling it in 2012. From 1986 until 1991, I operated The Dejá Vu Cafe on Pearl St. In 1997 I bought Leunig’s Bistro in downtown Burlington and ran it successfully until I retired in 2013. Along the way I built the Bobcat Cafe and Brewery in downtown Bristol, Vt., in 2002. I was also a partner/mentor in three other restaurants in Bristol, Cubber’s Pizza, The Bristol Bakery and Snap’s Restaurant.

The very best part of my life began on “Some Enchanted Evening” Dec. 5, 1992, in Lincoln, Vt., when I met the love of my life, Alison Parker. When I met her I found out what a really good life looks like. While we both worked hard in our chosen professions, we had many wonderful experiences and adventures far exceeding my grandest expectations. It was really good right from the beginning, and it just kept getting better and better as the years added up. We traveled and adventured all over the world by bike, foot, planes, trains, and automobiles. We camped throughout the USA in our Roadtrek campervan “Stella,” and then in “Dorothy,” the bells and whistles model. We spent many summers at our beloved Sunnyside Cottage on the shores of Lake Champlain…we lived the Dream…

Marrying Ali was by far the best decision I ever made, it just doesn’t get any better than that. She has proven herself over the years to be an absolute saint, and I feel so lucky to have had her as a part of my life. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

During the last year of my life, I completed and self-published my memoir, “A Horse Drawn Sickle Bar Cutter – Finding My Road to Felicity.” It is carried in local bookstores where you can find it if you are interested in learning more about my adventures.”

Beyond what Robert had to say for himself, there is so much more…

Robert was a seeker. In his mind, there was nothing he could not learn, nowhere he could not go, nothing he could not do.

As a lifelong artist, he tried in big and small ways to improve and beautify the world around him. He made birch hooks and railings and racks. He reused old slate to hand paint signs for family members’ birthdays and others to hang around the neighborhood with such sayings as “Love Is All There Is” and “Kindness is Magic – Be Kind Every Day,” He made stunning wedding cakes for friends and family, benches, birdhouses, kayaks, rowing boats, pottery, bread, and handmade collared shirts. Up until just a few weeks before his death, he was working to improve his sculptural welding skills and make a new art project out of old materials he had saved up from one of his past lives. The list goes on and on.

Robert was a lover of nature, outdoorsman, and boater. He taught himself mushroom foraging, which he and Alison enjoyed by foot and bike, sharing the harvest with restaurants and many friends. He maintained the Emily Proctor Section of the Long Trail for years. He and friend Peter formed the “Long Point Rowing Club” and set out in their wherries across the calm flat waters of Lake Champlain most summer mornings before the wind picked up. Canoe and kayak adventures were many, from the Grand Canyon to the Adirondacks, and not always without incident by a long shot!

Robert was an adventurer and a traveler. He traveled the world alone, with Alison, and in groups of motorcycle enthusiasts or healthcare volunteers or bike trekkers or ski junkies or food lovers. He could make friends with anyone. On his solo motorcycle camping trips, he would walk into a visitor center every day and make friends with whomever worked there, taking pictures and learning a new life story. He loved talking to people, as anyone who knew him could tell you. He loved hearing stories and relating his own, making connections.

Robert was generous with his time, his energy, his skills, and his resources as well as with his praise. He always found a way to help others, whether it was building a bridge for a ski trail over a gully, sharpening kitchen knives for friends, or carrying cement blocks up a trail to build a primary school in a small village in Honduras. The list is endless. He mentored many. You know who you are.

No account of Robert’s life would be complete without talking about his passion for motorcycles and people who ride them. It was a lifelong passion actually, but was not really reawakened until his retirement. He said he had to have something to retire to, and vintage motorcycles was that something. He cultivated friends in the world of motorcycles, acquired many, and worked on them with the help of his many friends at Classic Bike Experience, a group of like-minded enthusiasts that still meets every week.

Classic “Robertisms” that are worth repeating one last time are: “Aren’t we lucky?”; “Mother Nature did the heavy lifting”; “My predominant feeling is one of gratitude”; and most importantly and most repeated: “Enjoy the ride!”

Robert cared deeply about his family and was a pillar of love, guidance and wisdom for his stepchildren, nieces and grandchildren. Besides his wife Alison, Robert will be missed by many other beloved family members, including his sister Karen Farnsworth, stepchildren Noah, Molly, and Oakley, nieces Emily and Ivy, and “grandchildren” Asher, Caleb, Winston, Pascale, Harlowe and Hendric, as well as by an extended network of relations and friends.

Sincere thanks go to the amazing Drs. Laura Weylman and Paul Unger, who shepherded him through the years of ups and downs with his cancer diagnosis and much more. Also, to the amazing staff at their offices, Porter Hospital, and UVM Medical Center.

If you are moved to make a donation in Robert’s memory, think of Addison County Home Health and Hospice, where hospice nurse Wayne and other professional caregivers counseled and guided him through his last days, or to COTS in Burlington, or to another organization that offers assistance to people to find a secure place to call home. ◊