FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Robert Morgan Tonge, Sr., 98, passed away peacefully in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. on Feb. 7, 2023.

Bob first arrived in Waterville from Detroit, Mich. as a freshman at Colby in 1943. Other than brief absences in the Army Air Corp in Europe during WWII and another couple of years back in Detroit starting his family after graduation, Bob remained a Waterville resident for most of the next 80 years.

After he returned to Colby from Europe in 1945, he met a local girl named Muriel Smith, who had grown up at the bottom of Mayflower Hill near the bank of the Messalonskee River. Bob once said that the moment he first laid eyes on Muriel near the campus, sitting in a convertible with her sister, “that was it.” After that they were virtually inseparable for over 60 years of marriage. Bowtie Bob became one of the most familiar sights on Main Street for over half a century, strolling in his Hong Kong tailored suits between his office and the bank.

He leaves behind three sons; and a genealogically complex clan of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, all of whom he adored.

We will miss the stubbornness about as much as that grey stubble on his chin.

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