Robert E. Seaver, Professor Emeritus, Union Theological Seminary dies at 90

Union Mourns
Robert E. Seaver, Proclaimer of the Word
Professor Emeritus of Speech and Drama at Union Theological Seminary

Robert E. Seaver, Professor Emeritus of Speech and Drama at Union Theological Seminary, New York City, died at St. Luke’s Hospital on January 28. He was 90 and lived in Morningside Gardens, a stone’s throw from his beloved place of work for 56 years.


He had been in declining health for some time, said Dr. Janet Walton, Professor of Worship and Co-Director of the Seminary’s Theology and the Arts program.

During the time he taught at Union, generation after generation of students took Prof. Seaver’s not-to-be-missed course in voice building. Even after his official retirement in 1986, he continued to offer several sections each semester due to popular demand, until advancing age finally overcame his devotion to teaching and forced him to step down in 2005.

“Bob believed that it was his job as a teacher to draw out and develop the distinctiveness of each person,” said Walton. “And he did it and it was marvelous.”

In 1986 the New York Times described one class like this:

“Do it,” said Robert Edwin Seaver, Union’s professor of speech and drama, in [one student’s] voice-training course. He told the assembled students to talk through their clenched teeth. It seemed as if the room were filled with people impersonating Katharine Hepburn. “Now, let it go,” Seaver said. “Feel how free it is.” Seaver yawned and stretched exaggeratedly. Everyone in the class followed suit.

“Let your jaw hang,” Seaver said. “Get the feeling of being the town fool.” More