Robert Lejeune

Born in Paris in 1937, Bob emigrated at the age of ten with his mother to New York, a city he always loved. He never forgot his first New York experiences: seeing the Rockettes, going to Horn & Hardart, and hearing cereal make noise: snap! crackle! pop! He thought of himself neither as a Frenchman nor as an American, but as a New Yorker. After graduating from the City College of New York, he received a doctorate in Sociology from Columbia University and took up a position on the faculty of Lehman College, where he was able to channel his strong social conscience into his teaching. Fascinated by color and shape, after retiring from a stint as Director of Academic Computing at St. John’s University he abandoned his hobby of working in stained glass and applied himself to photography, becoming the star of the photo group run by Bloomingdale Aging in Place under the capable guidance of Ozzie Alfonso.

He enjoyed nothing more than exploring the five boroughs and capturing the spirit of their residents with his camera. His photo blog can be accessed at http://boblejeune.blogspot.com/, which also contains a link to the trip he took with his wife to China in 2009, http://bobandjeninchina.blogspot.com/. Punctuated since his wartime childhood by many bouts of adversity, his life nonetheless brought him great joy, much of which found expression in his photographs.

Bob loved spending time with his grandchildren, amusing them when they were young and encouraging their interests as they grew. They all developed commitments to social justice and enthusiasm for the arts, and several of them a passion for photography. He leaves behind his devoted wife, Jennifer Tolbert Roberts; a daughter, Yvette Lejeune Walton of Auckland, New Zealand; a son, Richard Lejeune (the late Dulce Nordlund Lejeune) of Hockessin, Delaware; a stepson, Christopher Roberts (Alexis Neaman Roberts) of Austin, Texas; seven grandchildren: in order of age, Alannah Lejeune, Brianna Lejeune, Sarah Walton, Beatrix Roberts, David Walton, Willa Roberts, and India Roberts; his sister-in-law and brother-in-law Page Tolbert and James Frawley of Manhattan; his oldest and closest friend, Marvin Israel, of Boiling Spring, Pennsylvania; and many cherished photographs, as well as numerous fictional animals with whose adventures he regaled his wife in bedtime stories when she could not fall asleep. Looking at you, Sneaky, Wiley, Clove! He never outgrew either his childlike playfulness or his hatred of cilantro.