Robert Freeman, 45, lawyer, ex-judicial clerk
Robert A. Freeman, a corporate lawyer and former judicial clerk, died Sept. 22 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center of kidney cancer. The Dover resident was 45.
Mr. Freeman was born in Great Neck, N.Y., and grew up in the Albany area. He graduated from Shaker High School in Latham, N.Y., in 1981.
He received a bachelor's degree in history from Yale University in 1985, and graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1988.
After law school, he undertook a judicial clerkship for Chief Justice David A. Brock of the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
During his yearlong clerkship, he met his future wife, Elizabeth (Freeman), who also served as a clerk. They were married in 1992 and moved to Dover in 1994.
Following his clerkship, Mr. Freeman went on to work as a lawyer for Goodwin, Proctor & Hoar, LLP in Boston until 1997. He then went on serve as in-house counsel for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts in Boston until 2004.
In 2004, he became US compliance officer and compliance counsel for EMD Serono Inc., a biopharmaceutical company in Rockland.
Mr. Freeman had an "unwavering professionalism" and was a great listener, said his co-worker, Renee Connolly, vice president of US communications for EMD Serono.
"He had a real ability to understand that everyone had a different reason to be at the table," she said.
Mr. Freeman loved the outdoors and hiking. He was a huge sports fan, especially of baseball. He was also an avid traveler.
"I don't think there is a place we have been that he didn't like," said his wife, who was his travel companion.
For years, Mr. Freeman would go on "boys only" trips, which included hiking in Colorado and snowmobiling in the Canadian Rockies, said his friend Larry Krupp of Arlington, whom he met his freshman year at Yale.
"He was the kind of friend who you knew would always be there for anything you needed," said Krupp.
Krupp described him as a highly intelligent man and someone who friends went to with questions because he had so much knowledge. He was also a man people could go to for advice.
"[You] always get the right advice, the best advice from Bob," he said.
In addition to his wife, he leaves two daughters, Clara and Rebecca; a son, Eric; his parents, Herbert and Joan of Cranbury, N.J.; and two sisters, Nancy Supowit of Columbus, Ohio, and Susan of Cranbury.
Services have been held. 