ROBERT BRUCE BORDEN

EAST MIDDLEBURY — To his delight, Robert Bruce Borden entered the Pearly Gates Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025. He had lived a long, rich life, and was ready for his next journey.

Born in Boston in 1933, raised in Fall River, Mass., and Newark, N.J, Robert attended Yale on a full scholarship, the first person in his family to go to college. Yale was a challenge for a young man from Newark, but as he adjusted to preppy young men and to superb professors, he became a fine scholar and took great delight in the life of the mind.

He served as instructor in the Army Security Agency, then worked in the Insurance Industry for some years before he followed his dream of academic life. He studied Anthropology at Boston University, received a Fulbright grant to analyze and preserve archaeological treasures in Liberia, and then moved from academia into a life of service. He worked as an educational consultant, chaired The Massachusetts Governor’s Commission on Vocational-Technical Education, raised funds for The Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, and then retired to Rochester, Vt., with his wife Lori. There he worked as a case manager for The Central Ver-mont Council on Aging, helping many elderly clients adjust to the challenges of poverty and governmental bureaucracy.

He retired a second time at the age of 82 after working at Menig Nursing Home at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph. He served for some years on the Board of Mountain Community Health in Bristol, as chair for three years.

In 2012 Robert married The Rev. Catherine Nichols of East Middlebury. They became a two-priest family, as he had been ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in 2001, she in 1984. He served the congregation of Christ Church, Bethel as a volunteer priest for many years.

He is survived by his beloved children, Diana Borden (Houston, Texas), Cynthia Prescott (Weymouth, Mass.), Robert Borden Jr. (Marblehead, Mass.) and Rebecca Foletta (Austin, Texas); beloved stepdaughter Carol Bendall (Greenwich, N.Y.); beloved stepchildren Lowell McKelvey (Portland, Ore.) and Cara Baggott (Colchester, Vt.); grandchildren Dr. Amelia Averyt and Joe Crawford of Houston, Texas; George and Evan Paicopoulos of Wayland, Mass., Olivia Foletta of Rochester, N.Y., and Jessica Otero of Weymouth, Mass.; great-grandchildren Franklin and Harold in Houston and Juliana and Jayda in Weymouth; and stepgranddaughters Taylor McKelvey of New York and Alexandra and Isabel Baggott of Vermont.

He was predeceased by his first wife, Barbara Adams, and second wife, Lori Borden, who died in 2009.

His friends and family describe him as quietly funny, fond of irony, both dignified and humble, and always kind and compassionate in part as a result of being responsible for his intellectually challenged older sister and his widowed mother for many years. Those who knew him will never forget his deep, mellifluous voice.

The family is enormously appreciative of the staff at Addison County Home Health and Hospice, whose help was superbly compassionate.

A celebration of his life will be held at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, Middlebury, on Friday, Dec. 5, at 2 p.m. ◊