Obituary

Robert Seymour Boikess passed away peacefully on Sunday, September 7, 2025. He was born on February 2, 1937 to Mannie and Bertha Boikess in Brooklyn, NY. Immigrants from Bessarabia in Eastern Europe, they instilled in their son a staunch belief in both justice and the intrinsic power of an organized community. These convictions would form his world view and ultimately guide him for the rest of his life.

Bob grew up in Brighton Beach, NY and spent his childhood exploring the boardwalk at Coney Island, playing stickball and chess, and cheering for his beloved Brooklyn Dodgers. He spent several summers of his childhood at Camp Kinderland in New York State. Its motto, “Peace, Freedom, Truth,” are tenets that he held both dear and irrefutable. The friendships he made there would be the very definition of “lifelong.” He cherished these relationships and regularly saw his camp friends throughout the decades.

A graduate of Lincoln High School, Brooklyn, Bob went on to earn his Bachelor’s Degree (1957), Master’s Degree (1960), and Ph.D. (1961) in Chemistry from Columbia University. He completed his postdoctoral work in the Department of Chemistry at UCLA in 1963. During his academic career, he earned multiple honors and fellowships and was a proud member of several academic and scientific research societies including Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Lambda Upsilon, and Sigma Xi.

His professional career began in 1963 as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at The State University of New York at Stony Brook. It was there that he met who would become his future wife of over 50 years, Karen Tobiassen. They were married in 1969 at The Plaza Hotel in their cherished New York City. They would raise their two sons, Bruce and Steven, in Highland Park, NJ, just across the Raritan River from the site of the most prolific portion of Professor Boikess’s career.

In 1968, Bob began his 57-year tenure at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. During those many decades as a Professor of Chemistry, it is estimated that the number of students he taught in both general and Organic Chemistry classes (some called it “Boikesstry”), would fill Rutgers University’s 52,000-seat football stadium.

Bob was one of the founding members of The Rutgers Chapter of the AAUP-AFT, one of the first public higher education unions with a collective bargaining agreement for full-time faculty. Among several positions he held in the union, he chaired the Bargaining Committee during several rounds of contract negotiations. Additionally, he played a critical role in multiple organizations in the Rutgers community, including The University Senate, The New Brunswick Faculty Council and The Academic Athletic Oversight Committee. A consummate academic, Bob wrote and co-authored several published papers spanning a wide range of chemistry principles and textbooks utilized by many students not only at Rutgers but around the country and abroad. Bob proudly remained an active member of both the Chemistry Department and the Rutgers community at large until his final day.

Off campus, Bob was an avid world traveler. His first memorable trip took him to Cuba in 1958, just days before Fidel Castro took control (Bob swore that he had nothing to do with it). Over the years, he and his intrepid wife visited over 80 countries. Favorites included Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Nepal. France, where he had cousins, was always a favorite destination. His passion for travel inspired him to twice direct the Study Abroad program for Rutgers University in Great Britain and Ireland. The only thing more numerous than the countries he visited, were the number of souvenirs he brought back with him. More than one visitor to the Boikess home commented that it felt like walking through a museum.

In their later years, Bob and Karen spent most weekends in Manhattan, where they never tired of trying new cuisines, seeing friends, and enjoying the cultural landscape of the city. Around Rutgers, Bob was often seen taking his family to Rutgers football and basketball games. Well into his eighties, he could regularly be seen working out at the gym in The Werblin Center, where he loved nothing more than challenging his students to various feats of physical endurance.

As he aged and Bob found himself more frequently in doctor’s offices and hospitals, he often ran into doctors and nurses who would tell him that they had once been his student. Bob’s response was always the same: “Before I let you do anything to me, what grade did you get in my class?”. He also would routinely tell medical professionals that they would have enjoyed their chemistry classes a lot more if they had had him as their teacher.

Bob was predeceased by his wife, Karen, in 2021. He is survived by his son, Bruce (and wife Elizabeth), his son, Steven (and wife Susan), and his two grandchildren, Nolan and Elise. A memorial in his honor will be held at a later date.