Robert Lincoln, Jr.

Robert L. Lincoln, Jr., Fundraiser, Singer, Poet, and Lover of Life Dies at 88

Robert L. Lincoln Jr. died on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, at the Woodridge Rehabilitation Center and Nursing Home in Berlin, Vermont, of metastatic prostate cancer and heart failure. He was 88.

Bob brought laughter and joy into his every encounter until days before his death. He was rambunctious, in-your-face loud, proclaiming and exuding LIFE. He loved reading, especially history. He loved music. He wrote volumes of poetry, bursting with images from nature, especially the coming of Spring, in which he exulted. Bob made lovely collages, and he disseminated these and his poetry among his many friends. He loved his first wife, Viiu, and his second wife, Lynne, her sons Rich and Jamie, and their children. He loved his sisters Shirley and Susan, and their progeny.

Bob was born in Albany, NY, on December 29, 1937, and he grew up in Stamford, CT, graduating from Stamford High School and Denison University. His sisters describe a shy child who rapidly became increasingly spirited. I recall a picture of him around age 12, on a chair, ecstatically pointing to a New York Times headline reading “REDS INVADE PEIPING.” An early report card during World War II mentioned him running around the class playing war games. He calmed down, but never completely, thank goodness. Bob was a choir boy at St. John the Divine in Manhattan, where he resided during his junior high school years. His stay at St. John was a source of pride for him, but he recalled this also as a painful separation from his family. He continued his singing into adulthood and for many years performed widely with The Social Band.

He lived in Greenwich Village during his beatnik years. During these years, he spent his free time playing “drums,” employing brushes on the bottom of an inverted metal trash can, accompanying recordings of Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. He also enjoyed the music of Keith Jarrett and Stéphane Grappelli.

As he emerged from his beatnik phase, Bob took a job as a fundraiser at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. There he met and married Viiu Niiler, and they lived first in Brooklyn, then moved to Vermont. He continued his fundraising career in Vermont. His marriage ended in divorce.

Some years after his divorce, he met Lynne, his second wife, when she made illegal contact with his leg under the net during a volleyball game. The illegal contact sparked a love affair that lasted the rest of their lives.

He was a terrific fundraiser due to his generous spirit and gregarious nature, which contrasted with the little boy who often hid behind his mother when he was frightened. He worked for Planned Parenthood in New York, Central Vermont Community Action Council, Vermont Public Radio, and had a long stint with the Green Mountain Club. At the Club, he was responsible for acquiring land to protect the 270-mile Long Trail, “A Footpath Through the Wilderness,” spanning the length of Vermont from Massachusetts to Canada. During his tenure, he helped to secure hundreds of acres of land to protect the Trail.

Uncle Bob, as he was widely known, had a tremendous appetite for living. He approached his life with enthusiasm, courage, and wit. He brought smiles to the faces of even the most reticent of people, including strangers. Many of the Green Mountain Club staff sought his counsel on personal matters, including their love lives.

His manic intensity, humor, and decency attracted many fine people into his orbit, and these people helped care for him in the last years of his life. This caring enabled him to remain in his cherished home until very shortly before his death. His funky house in Middlesex, Vermont, reflects his personality. The sprawling wooden house is full of unexpected angles and intimate spaces. The floors slant in various directions. The house has a ramshackle quality, while retaining warmth, charm, and simplicity; a chaotic version of Thoreau’s cabin.

His life was affected by cancer, both his own for over 27 years, and his wife Lynne’s, and he spent several years of intensive caregiving for Lynne, until he became the object of caregiving after her death seven months ago.

Bob is survived by his sisters, Shirley Lincoln Rigby and Susan Lincoln Weiss, his cousin John Lincoln, his stepsons Richard and Jamie Does, his former wife Viiu Niiler, as well as his step-grandchildren, Natalie, Graham, and Finn, nieces Kate, Elizabeth, Deborah, and Suzanne, nephew Timothy, and many great-nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his wife Lynne Walther, who died last year, and by his parents, Ellen Lundquist Lincoln and Robert Louis Lincoln, Sr., as well as his nephew Peter.

He died as he lived, with a sense of wonder, and he deeply touched all who knew him.

The family wishes to thank Nancy and Bob Edson, Brian and Margot Prendergast, and Susan Walter for generously looking out for Bob over the last years and months of his life.