Philanthropist and lawyer Robert Fuller Jr., who had long-standing ties to central Maine, was found dead in his assisted living facility in Maryland on Saturday and his death is being investigated as a homicide, police say.
Authorities were called to the Cogir Potomac Senior Living facility in Potomac for a reported death shortly after 7 a.m. They found Fuller, 87, inside an apartment and initiated life-saving measures, but he was pronounced dead at the scene, the Montgomery County Department of Police said in a news release.
Officers noted a head injury and detectives confirmed he had been shot. His death is being investigated as a homicide, though no suspects have been publicly identified. He was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for an autopsy to determine cause and manner of death, the Montgomery County Department of Police said.
Fuller and his late wife, Moira, had lived in Winthrop and had a long history of contributing to numerous causes in Augusta, including Cony High School, MaineGeneral Medical Center, Kennebec Valley YMCA, Lithgow Public Library and Kennebec Historical Society.
Kent London, president of the Kennebec Historical Society, said Fuller had deep family ties to Maine’s capital city and was a major benefactor to the society, donating funds, and Fuller family historical items and portraits. He also helped the society purchase its headquarters building, which once belonged to one of his ancestors, the Henry Weld Fuller Jr. House at 107 Winthrop St. in Augusta. And he was a driving force in establishing the society’s development fund, named for his late wife, Moira Hastings Fuller.
“He’s going to be missed,” London said of Fuller. “The history of the Fuller family goes back to the very beginning of Augusta.”
London, who learned of Fuller’s death over the weekend from a member of his family, said Fuller had a great interest in history, and longtime society members said he’d sit with them and talk for hours.
In 2021 Fuller donated $1.64 million to help build a new artificial turf athletic field at Alumni Field at Cony High School, since renamed Fuller Field in his honor.
At the time, Fuller, who did not attend Cony, said he was motivated to make the donation because of his belief that when a high school has a continuing history of athletic success, it fosters a sense of community pride.
Fuller also funded the installation of statues of Judge Daniel Cony at Cony High School and Melville Weston Fuller outside the Kennebec County Courthouse, both of whom are Fuller’s ancestors.
The Melville Fuller statue stirred controversy because Melville Fuller, when he was chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, presided over the court that decided Plessy v. Ferguson, which institutionalized the “separate but equal” doctrine and racial discrimination in the United States for several decades.
Due to the controversy, the Kennebec County commissioners voted to give the statue back to Fuller, who had it removed. Fuller considered, but rejected, a plan to feature the statue in a proposed museum at 95 State St. in Augusta, across from its former spot at the courthouse. The plan was withdrawn.
