Joseph Vaughan

Colleague

Bob was the first Dean of Faculty that I worked with at Mudd and, as Isabel said, he was a mensch. He showed deep kindness and understanding all the time, even when things were hard in his own life.

Once outside Sprague he came up behind me and said “Joseph! and you’re wearing the correct jeans, the only kind I ever buy” and went on to talk in detail about what he liked about the style, fit and cut of those particular jeans.

I miss and mourn him almost daily.

Matthew Plunkett ’92

Student

Prof. Cave was a newly-minted Assistant Professor and I a new frosh back in August 1988. I fondly remember his warmth and enthusiasm for teaching, for students, and for life.

I remember working on a capstone project for his Physical Organic class… he never discouraged me from a project that was probably too ambitious. Instead, we worked together to push the limits of what could be done computationally at that time. It was a delight to work though difficult challenges with him.

He met my mom at graduation in 1992, where they spoke for a bit – to this day she remembers their discussion and the warmth of his personality.

We all miss you, Prof. Cave.

Maureen Ruiz-Sundstrom ’10

Student

In his role as Dean of Academic Affairs, Prof. Cave was instrumental in helping me find an academic path for myself at HMC after my interests moved away from the 9 majors offered at the time.
He was such a grounding and encouraging professor, and a strong collaborator and partner during my time as a staff member. He is missed.

Izzy Lee ’16

Student

One of favorite things about Prof Cave was the joy of life and enthusiasm for chemistry that he carried with him. I can still picture his smile and hear his laughter. He never made me feel intimidated about asking me for help or foolish for not knowing a concept. A piece of advice we got for giving thesis presentations and other such presentations towards the department was that if you’re feeling nervous, look at Prof Cave, because he will have a smile on his face and be nodding along to everything you say. I never ended up doing so in the moment of presenting, but just knowing he was in crowd bolstered my confidence. The Mudd community as a whole has lost a dear mentor and colleague but I hope that we can all embody the passion he had as we carry on without him.

Hans Purkey ’96

Thesis Student

Bob is one of the of the primary reasons I’m a chemist. He and Bill Daub taught me 1st Semester Frosh Chem and I was hooked. They had such great rapport, making jokes at each others’ expense both in lecture, HW and tests. Bob’s love and passion for chemistry was infectious. He was my academic advisor throughout Mudd and I had the privilege of doing my senior thesis with him, marking my first venture into computational/theoretical chemistry research. Every time I’ve returned for alumni weekend, I’ve always managed to track him down and we’d catch up with what had happened in each of our lives over the previous 5 years. He was always genuinely interested in what I was doing, showing the bottomless generosity and care for people that he possessed. I still remember the first meeting with him after I had started at compchemistry position at a biotech company. He asked, almost incredulously, “They PAY you to do compchem in industry?!?!?!” He then let out his bellowing laugh that shook the room. Bob, you’ve touched so many people’s lives over your life and career, and in an amazingly positive way. Many other departments at Mudd were amazed by you, and I heard several (wishful) statements about incoming faculty: “This could be our Bob Cave”. Count me as one (of the many) who have pursued a lifetime of chemistry thanks to your early influence.