Dr. Robert “Rob” S. Northrup, a lifelong Chautauquan, died peacefully on July 12, 2024 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, after a long decline from PCA, Posterior Cortical Atrophy. The son of Dr. Robert R. Northrup and Anne Elizabeth “Betty” Smither, he was born on Nov. 21, 1938, and raised in Westfield, New York, just 10 miles from Chautauqua. Rob and his family visited Chautauqua often, driving over to attend the occasional lecture, the opera and the symphony. The music at Chautauqua inspired Rob’s own musical ambitions, which had begun singing in the church choir in Westfield with his family, and continued as he sang in and arranged for choruses and choirs throughout his life. He and his sisters Betsy Northrup (now deceased) and Sherry Tyler all attended Boys’ and Girls’ Club. In 1956, Rob went off to college at Yale and then attended Harvard Medical School. During his time in Boston, he married Margaret “Quincy” Northrup in 1962, and together they had two children, Anne and Robert Jr.
Rob served his residency close to home in Buffalo from 1964 to 1966. But at that point, rather than following in the footsteps of his father, he took his medical degree to the other side of the world, serving with the Public Health Service in a cholera lab in Dhaka, East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) from 1966 to 1969. One of Rob’s proudest professional achievements was his pivotal role in the development of Oral Rehydration Therapy at a cholera lab in Dhaka. This groundbreaking therapy, later adopted by UNICEF, has saved millions of lives by combating infant mortality caused by diarrheal diseases. His work in this field remains a cornerstone of global health initiatives. It was also a cornerstone of the family’s frankness about diarrhea, much to the chagrin of friends.
In 1969, Rob began working at the National Institutes of Health in Washington D.C., researching the development of a cholera vaccine. Summers at Chautauqua were spent living at the Mayflower, where the children could hear the symphony as they fell asleep at night. Anne and Robert Jr. attended Boys’ and Girls’ Club. Rob and Quincy went to lectures and concerts. Rob especially loved the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra and would sit in the choir loft to be able to see the conductor, a habit since childhood. The family played tennis at the courts near the Main Gate, forging lifelong friendships with fellow Chautauquans.
In 1973, Rob moved the family to Okinawa, Japan. A year later, the family moved again, to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where Rob worked with Dr. Jon Rohde, a colleague from his Dhaka days, on a Rockefeller Foundation project to update the medical school curriculum at Gadjah Mada University. This collaboration marked the beginning of his career as a public health educator and eventually led to his later work with Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti.
Chautauqua became the family’s stateside home base. In 1975, the Northrups purchased a home on Judson, notable for the large lava head of Gadjah Mada that Rob brought back from Indonesia and placed in the front yard. Quincy and the children spent the full season at Chautauqua, with Rob joining them for a month each summer, filling his days with the morning lecture, the afternoon lecture, tennis, reading and socializing on the porch of the Judson house, and evenings at the Amphitheater. And the Chautauqua Cinema’s robust schedule allowed him and the family to catch up on the past year’s movies. Visits to his parents in Westfield for cookouts at the cottage on Lake Erie and visits to his uncle’s family in Ellicottville helped keep him connected to his roots, even as his career took him from Indonesia to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Brown University’s School of Public Health, and back to Washington D.C.
As the family grew, Anne and Robert Jr. each married, and brought their families to Chautauqua, continuing the tradition.
Dr. Northrup is survived by his beloved wife, Quincy, his children Anne Northrup (Daniel Andries) and Robert Northrup Jr., his sister Sherry Tyler (Dave Tyler) and family, six grandchildren, and numerous cousins. His life was marked by dedication to public health, a love for Chautauqua, and a commitment to family.