Robert Hart Aldrich

Robert Hart Aldrich of Westport, Connecticut passed away peacefully at home on July 19 following a battle with cancer. He was 91.

Robert, known to friends and family as Bob, was born on September 25, 1934, in New Rochelle, New York, to Louis S. and Katherine D. Aldrich. He graduated from New Rochelle High School before attending Princeton University, where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering while starring on the football team and playing goaltender for the varsity hockey team. After completing his master’s degree, he moved to San Rafael California with his wife Sandra Farley Aldrich, and their young son, Robert (Bobby) to begin his career at Standard Oil of California. Their second child, a daughter Nancy, was born there shortly before Robert took a position at Union Carbide in New York, where he spent nine years in project development. The family later moved to the seaside community of Rowayton, Connecticut which would remain their home for the next fifty years. Sons Edward (“Ted”) and John were soon added to the family.

In 1970, Chase Manhattan Bank CEO David Rockefeller recruited Bob to lead the first environmental banking initiative undertaken by a major financial institution. As the bank's pioneering environmental executive, he helped integrate environmental stewardship into banking practices decades before sustainability became part of the financial mainstream. He spent the remainder of his Wall Street career working for Chase and other financial institutions helping finance companies and projects that delivered meaningful environmental benefits.

At the age of sixty-six, Bob embarked on a second career doing something he always loved: teaching. He was accepted into the Teach for America program and taught science for five years in the South Bronx, a role which he said was the most rewarding he ever had. Thereafter, Bob worked in the Norwalk and Westport school systems, teaching into his late eighties until COVID. He also worked during that time as an adjunct professor of chemistry at Norwalk Community College.

Robert met Sandra in elementary school, dated her all throughout high school and college, and married her in 1956, just days after graduating from Princeton. Their 70-year marriage, which they celebrated in June of 2026 surrounded by all their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, was the foundation of the close-knit family they built.

Deeply committed to public service, Bob served as Chairman of the Norwalk Board of Education during the turbulent, teacher-strike-filled 1970s and was twice elected to the Norwalk Common Council. His family liked to joke that his final term was motivated primarily by a desire to repair the tennis courts at Rowayton Elementary School, where they spent countless weekend mornings together.

An accomplished athlete with boundless energy, Bob loved tennis and pond hockey above all else (even if he started skating too early each winter and fell through the ice nearly every year). He was happiest when he was outdoors and in motion. Generations of Rowayton residents also remember the annual "Whales" versus "Greeks" softball games, a beloved community tradition that he and his closest friend Peter G. Diamandis founded in the early 1960s and kept alive for more than forty years.

Bob is survived by his beloved wife Sandra; his children, Robert, Nancy (Brien), Edward (Susan), and John (Margee); his grandchildren Farley, Jack (Astrid), Ben (Greer), Tommy, Seixas, and Farrell Aldrich, Will Haskell (Katie), and Annie Kenworthy (Tristram); and his great-grandchildren Gaël and Mathieu Aldrich-Parenty.

A service will be held on August 8 at 11:00am at the United Church of Rowayton, 210 Rowayton Ave, Norwalk, CT 06853. Memorial donations may be made to the Norwalk Education Fund, 125 East Avenue, Norwalk CT 06851.