Robert Lynch Obituary

Robert Lee Lynch passed away at home on Thursday, May 4th, 2023. Bob was born in Harlan, Kentucky, on June 5th, 1943. He grew up in Loyall, Kentucky, and then Barboursville, Kentucky, where he attended Barbourville city schools. Bob attended the University of Kentucky, where he became president of Triangle Fraternity and earned a degree in Civil Engineering. He earned a Master's degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Arizona. He also studied at the University of New South Wales, Australia, where he coached the women's basketball team to a championship victory. He then taught engineering at the University of Papua New Guinea in Lae, PNG, before living 11 years as a "yachtie" in the western Pacific and southeast Asian region on his sloop Wantok and later Valella. He married his wife Adriana (Ally) during this period, and fathered two children, Andrew and Eloise. He navigated using a sextant, rejecting what was then new satellite navigation technology. Bob continued to travel as he leaned into family life and a civil engineering consultancy career that would span thirty years and 15 countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines, and Afghanistan. Most recently, Bob enjoyed life on his Whitley County farm, working alongside his gardening buddy Nathan growing vegetables, berries, beekeeping, and making wine and award-winning jams. Bob was preceded in death by his parents Lee and Margaret Lynch and his nephew Jim Taylor, all dearly beloved. He is survived by his wife Adriana (Ally) of 37 years; his son Andrew; his daughter Eloise; his brother Ralph Lynch; his sister Elaine Perkins; his sister Dinah Taylor; his three granddaughters, Abra Lynch McCurry, Clara Lynch, and Elizabeth Lynch; and a host of other family and friends who all remember him as a perpetual force for love and joy. All arrangements will be private.