Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Bayard Henry ROBERTS
Rail executive served in Navy during WWII
By Gayle Ronan Sims
Inquirer Staff Writer
Bayard Henry Roberts, 96, of Bryn Mawr, an executive with the Pennsylvania Railroad when it merged in 1968 with the New York Central to form the soon-to-be bankrupt Penn Central, died of pneumonia June 8 at Bryn Mawr Hospital.
Born in Bala Cynwyd, Mr. Roberts lived a charmed life. In an oral history, Mr. Roberts described a childhood dancing class for 30 youngsters held at his parents' grand home - Snowden - in Bala Cynwyd. "We didn't learn to dance very much, but we did some terrible things," he said. One of his favorites was dropping water bombs from a third-floor window on the heads of mothers emerging from the front door. "It worked only once," he said. "It was a terrible situation."
Mr. Roberts' lineage can be traced to 1683, when gentleman farmer John Roberts purchased 150 acres in what is now Lower Merion from William Penn. He named the farm Pencoyd, Welsh for "head of the woods." Pencoyd Iron Works was founded on the banks of the Schuylkill by two of Roberts' heirs, Algernon and Percival. In 1852, the brothers recognized what an advantage the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad provided them, so they built a bridge and steel manufacturing plant, A&P Roberts, which was renamed the American Bridge Co. The firm employed 1,000 men until the end of World War II.
Mr. Roberts' grandfather, George B. Roberts, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. until 1897, sold most of Pencoyd but retained some for a family farm. Mr. Roberts told tales of cousins building a toboggan slide and making castles out of bales of straw on the farm. All of the land was eventually sold and a shopping center was built on the property partially bordered by City Avenue.
Mr. Roberts graduated in 1930 from St. Paul's School in Concord, N.H. He earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1934 from Princeton University and a law degree in 1937 from the University of Pennsylvania.
He married Louise McIlhenny in 1938, and the couple raised four daughters in Chestnut Hill.
Mr. Roberts enlisted in the Navy in 1942. He was an air combat intelligence officer, first with a blimp squadron in Texas, then aboard the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Lexington during battles in the Pacific.
He was discharged in 1945 as a lieutenant.
"After the war," he later wrote, "it was back to the PRR and in time I became corporate secretary. I was involved in one of the largest corporate mergers (PRR and New York Central) and soon thereafter one of the largest corporate collapses (Penn Central Transportation Co.).
"Rather than wait for the reorganization of the Penn Central (I didn't think I would live that long)," Mr. Roberts wrote, "I took early retirement and in 1970 became a consultant to several nonprofit organizations."
In retirement, Mr. Roberts ran the Schuylkill Valley Nature Center, volunteered at the Travelers Aid Society, and was on the boards of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf and Friends of the Wissahickon.
Mr. Roberts and his wife, whom he fondly called Weasel, loved their Chestnut Hill garden, which was featured on tours. Mr. Roberts enjoyed walking along the Wissahickon, and sailing and fishing in Northeast Harbor, Maine. He was a member of a men's social club, the Rabbit, and founder of the Wissahickon Skating Club in 1956.
Ice skating was a lifelong passion. Mr. Roberts was always up for a game of "shinny" and ice dancing to music. "My father and I ice danced together," said daughter Sydney Roberts Rockefeller. "We were terrible, but we had fun."
In 1987, Mr. Roberts and his wife were among the first residents of Beaumont, a retirement community in Bryn Mawr. His wife died in 2004.
In 2005, Mr. Roberts announced he had fallen in love with a friend, Frances D. Borie. The couple had a nonstop social life and traveled extensively until his health began to fail in April.
In addition to his daughter and friend, Mr. Roberts is survived by daughters Louise Roberts Johnston and Patricia; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Daughter Selina Roberts Ottum died in 1990.
Memorial services will be held July 19 in Northeast Harbor and at 4 p.m. Sept. 19 at St. Christopher's Church, Gladwyne. Donations may be sent to the Nursing Excellence Fund, Bryn Mawr Hospital Development Office, 130 S. Bryn Mawr Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010.
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