On the evening of November 22nd,
ROBERT JOHN EDWARDS, class of 1955, passed away of pancreatic cancer. Bob is survived by his wife, Ann Kos Edwards of New Orleans, Louisiana, his son, Dr. John Francis Edwards of Starkville, Mississippi, and sister, Mona Babikian of Atlantic Beach, New York.
Bob Edwards was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia on October 8, 1932 to his late mother, Liba Pour, a Czech national, and his late father Edward Herman, an Armenian-American businessman. As a child, Bob lived in Paris, France and Bucharest, Romania. The family left war torn Europe in January, 1946 and settled in New York City. Bob graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx and continued his education by earning a Bachelor degree in Marine Engineering from SUNY Maritime College at Fort Schuyler, New York. His training at Fort Schuyler earned him a commission in the United States Navy. In 1955, Bob began a long and successful career as a field service engineer for the Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W), which eventually became a subsidiary of McDermott International. Bob earned his Juris Doctorate from St. Johns University in 1970 and was admitted to the New York State Bar. While studying for his law degree, Bob joined B&Ws legal department. He began working as a patent attorney in 1971 and earned a Masters degree in Law from New York University in 1977, eventually serving for twenty-two years as Chief Patent Counsel for McDermott International in New Orleans. As a field service engineer, Bob worked in Spain, Korea, Japan, and the former Yugoslavia, where he met his beloved wife Ann. Bob and Ann were married in 1965 in Belgrade. Until moving to New Orleans in 1979, they resided in Long Island, New York. Bob was a member of the New York Bar Association, American Bar Association, Association of Patent Counsels, and the US Trademark Association. After Bob retired from McDermott International, he continued to work as a patent law consultant, writing patents until the last weeks of his life. The United States Patent and Trademark Office credits Robert J. Edwards as the legal representative for well over one thousand patents. He relished in what he referred to as, the art of writing a patent. Despite a long and demanding career as a patent attorney, Bob never lost his love for learning. In recent years, he became very involved with the University of New Orleans Golden Agers program and enrolled in many classes. For many summers Bob joined his wife in Innsbruck, Austria while she taught classes in Anthropology for the University of New Orleans Innsbruck Summer Program. In addition to traveling Bob enjoyed golfing and sailing on Lake Ponchatrain.
Ann Edwards
FMSAA