Robert Walter Ashmore, Iv

Rob Ashmore passed away at home surrounded by his family on Monday, January 25, 2021, from metastatic cancer. Rob was born in Tallahassee, Florida, on March 18, 1940, to Alberta Schaker Ashmore and Robert Walter Ashmore, Jr. He is a descendant of early settlers of Wakulla County, Florida. An avid reader and outstanding student from his early years, he developed habits of intellectual curiosity and engagement in his community that would continue throughout his life. In 1958, upon graduation from Leon High School, he left home to attend Harvard College, thanks to a scholarship initiative aimed at expanding the geographic and social representation of the student body there. He graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in Government. The friends he made and the cultural and intellectual stimulation he received in these college years left a lasting imprint on his interests and his values. He married Dorothy Alford of Tallahassee in 1961; the marriage ended in 1982. He entered the University of Virginia School of Law in 1962 and then took a hiatus to enter U. S. Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, RI, becoming a Lieutenant on the USS Boire (DD-704). His Naval career gave Rob a further opportunity to see the broader world and to reflect on his role in it and remained a lasting source of pride. After serving his country, Rob returned to Charlottesville to complete his legal education graduating in 1969. In the same year he moved with his young family to Atlanta to join Fisher & Phillips, the Atlanta-based labor and employment law firm, to begin what would become a 41-year career with that firm. Included among the many forms of recognition and awards he received for his legal work was admission to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. Friends from his professional life remember him for his skill in and devotion to the craft of writing, also for his consistent integrity and straight dealing, and generous mentorship and support for junior colleagues.

Rob met Susan Youngblood in 1989 at a parish retreat at the Kanuga conference center, and they married in 1992. He supported her emotionally and financially throughout her graduate education and was proud of her career. He loved to travel in style with joie de vivre visiting his children and grandchildren in China, India, and Spain, and taking family trips to Maine, Idaho, California, Arkansas, Florida, Canada, France, England, and Scotland. He expressed his personal faith in large and small ways: as a devoted member of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Atlanta, in his service trips to Honduras, through participation in Education for Ministry, in his leadership role in the Harvard Club of Georgia as its President, and through his sense of humor, the twinkle in his eyes, and his enjoyment of nature. He was loved and known as “G-Pa” to his four grandchildren who lit up his world. Rob was an avid reader of fiction, history, and poetry, a photographer, and found meaning in researching his own family’s past. Through the years he also delighted in his Labrador retrievers Marney, Ellie, and Honey. His family especially values and has been influenced by his deep love, generosity, integrity, and decency. Rob and his family will always remain grateful to Duncan Rolinson for his friendship and care of Rob in the final weeks of his life, to the compassionate staff of Hospice Atlanta, and to Rev. Amy Dills-Moore for her pastoral care.

He is survived by his wife of 28 years; children Robert Rutledge Ashmore and his wife Yuming He of Berkeley, CA, Julienne Leigh Ashmore, of Girona, Spain, and David Alford Ashmore and his wife Joanna Madden of Boise, ID; his grandchildren Gyan Polo Ashmore, Gayatri Polo Ashmore, Elliott Ashmore, and Emilie Ashmore; his sisters Rebecca Ashmore Robinson and husband John Robinson of Atlanta, Toni Ashmore Riddle of Houston, and brother Merritt

Ashmore and wife Lori Ashmore of St. Petersburg, Florida. His sister Roberta Ashmore Gunn preceded him in death. In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial gift in Rob’s name to the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany or Hospice Atlanta Visiting Nurse Health System. A celebration of Rob’s life will be scheduled when the pandemic rules have been relaxed and gatherings can be planned.