NORTH HAVEN — Robert Shaw Oliver Harding, 95, died peacefully on the island of North Haven, Maine, on August 15, 2026, surrounded by his beloved daughters, Alexandra and Eliza. Born in New York City on January 22, 1931, he was the son of Marion Choate and Charles Barney Harding. He developed his love for the written word at Phillips Academy Andover, where he graduated in 1948. He then continued on to Harvard University, where he played four years of soccer and formed lifelong friendships in the Porcellian Club.

The Korean War broke out between his sophomore and junior years, and upon graduating in 1952, he enlisted in the Army and ultimately served as lieutenant and then aide-de-camp for Brigadier General C. Stanton Babcock in the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. In 1955, he accepted a position with the Department of State in Munich, Germany, where he lived and worked until 1960, when he moved to Washington D.C., to work in the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs.

While he was proud of his distinguished career in government service, in his eyes, it paled in comparison to the far more important milestone of that era — meeting his future wife, Diana Pike. Bob first met Diana at the wedding of his dear friend (and Diana’s brother), Buff Bohlen. Ten years later, Bob visited Paris, where Diana was living and working, and after a whirlwind cross-Atlantic courtship, they were married on December 17, 1966. Diana joined him in Washington D.C. where they continued their government work until resigning together in July 1967.

While living in Germany, Bob visited the institute of Nobel-winning zoologist Dr. Konrad Lorenz, and this ignited in him a fascination for animal research that ultimately led to his second career as a primatologist. The young couple moved to Berkeley in 1967 so Bob could pursue his Ph.D. in physical anthropology at U.C. Berkeley. Daughters Alexandra and Eliza were born and, in 1970, the family accompanied Bob to a cattle ranch in the Rift Valley in Gilgil, Kenya for a year-and-a-half study of the ecology and social behavior of free-ranging baboons.

Bob received his Ph.D. in 1973, and the family moved back East to the Philadelphia area, marking the start of his 24-year career as a tenured professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. During that time, Bob continued his research, always with Diana by his side and usually with the girls in tow, in Kenya, Sierra Leone (where he did a survey of large mammals for a proposed national park), and Venezuela (where he studied capuchin monkeys). In addition to his research, Bob co-edited a book, wrote numerous journal articles, and taught hundreds of students about primatology and his favorite topic: evolution. His sense of humor and ability to connect with people made him a popular and well-loved professor until his retirement in 1996.

Bob embraced retirement, choosing to devote his first year to planning Alexandra’s wedding, keeping meticulous track of the details and befriending everyone along the way. His informal, warm, witty demeanor charmed everyone he interacted with, and he had a long list of new friends by the time the wedding took place. He loved exploring the world with Diana and the girls, but was just as happy at their old stone farmhouse in Bryn Mawr, where he and Diana learned through trial and error to cultivate thriving vegetable and flower gardens. Bob was devoted to the family bird feeders, fastidiously cleaning and filling them to attract local birds for his regular tracking reports to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Music was another of his great passions; even after Diana passed away, he continued to honor their shared love of the arts by maintaining his season subscriptions to the Philadelphia Orchestra and BalletX.

He had a particular knack for relating to young people, was astonishingly current on pop culture, and kept his VW bug’s radio tuned to WMMR, the local rock station. At Penn, he was especially beloved by his graduate students and was deemed cool enough by them to be gifted his very first pair of Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers, which he continued to wear and replace until the day he died. He was also known for the groovy leather African sandals he liked to wear around the Main Line.

Bob was a voracious reader of novels, scientific journals, newspapers, and biographies, and had a particular affinity for local minutiae. It was hard to find a topic that he couldn’t discuss in an informed and intelligent way, but he was unfailingly humble about his intellect. With a sharp eye for detail, he routinely edited the grammar of everyday life, from billboards to menus, and held a lifelong grievance against the misused apostrophe. He was famously known to return letters written by his daughters with grammatical corrections in the margins. He had a quick wit and was a master of puns and wordplay, regularly besting family members in the New York Times word games right through his final summer.

Like Diana, Bob was happiest at the house in North Haven, Maine, surrounded by his family. He loved the ocean, a connection rooted in the early years he spent boating with his father. He found great joy piloting the Damphino, the small lobster boat he bought to take his growing family on picnics and explorations among the small islands dotting the Penobscot Bay. His grandchildren were a source of immense pleasure for him, whether it was letting them nap on his lap, reading books together or playing a round of “salad bowl” as they grew older. He watched their concerts, tracked their bike and swim races religiously, and was a fan of all their team sports, especially soccer, streaming matches online whenever available.

Bob was a man ahead of his time. Not only was he a great intellect and beloved professor, but he was also the first to offer to bake a blueberry pie, whip up a batch of his famous granola, or meticulously chop vegetables for a stew. He was a master at folding laundry, and unlike many men of his generation, arrived at his daughters’ houses ready to cook, clean, and make their lives easier. He was known for his huge bear hugs and his warm smile. His gentleness, kindness, compassion, and fierce devotion to his family offered a different role model for young men.

Bob is adored and missed by his surviving family: daughter Alexandra Thomsen and her husband Lorne, and their children Jack, Gavin and Louisa (Waterbury Center, Vermont); daughter Eliza Turner, her husband Stephen, and their children Adeline, Asa, and Eden (Larkspur, California); as well as Diana’s siblings, beloved nieces and nephews and countless dear friends.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to any of the organizations below which were close to his heart:

North Haven Sustainable Housing - online at https://nhshousing.org/support or by mail to North Haven Sustainable Housing, P.O. Box 373 North Haven, ME 04853.

BalletX - by mail to BalletX, 1923 Washington Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19146 or online at https://www.balletx.org/ways-to-support/. Please note that your gift is in memory of Bob Harding.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology - online at Cornell Lab of Ornithology: Donate Now

A small private celebration of life will be held this fall, and there will be a gathering in North Haven, Maine next summer for local family and friends.

Arrangements are in the care of Burpee, Carpenter & Hutchins Funeral Home, 110 Limerock St., Rockland.