Robert Flohr
1965-2001

On December 15th, Robert Flohr, a part-time employee of the American Liberty Foundation, passed away. He was a wonderful libertarian who was universally liked by all who knew him. We miss him.

It might seem odd that I'm telling you about this nearly one month after it happened, but we just received the news this weekend. Only three members of our team work in our tiny headquarters — the rest telecommute. Robert was a telecommuter.

I last saw Robert just three days before he died. He appeared to be in good health and was in excellent spirits. Our last night was a fun one and a memory I will always hold dear.

It was the final night of a three evening Public Relations course. The course prepares you for a public relations fiasco and the last night was the final exam. Each team was given a nightmare scenario where they had to develop and implement a media plan. The person "batting clean-up" on each team was required to be the spokesman overseeing the world's most difficult press conference. Robert embraced challenge and loved learning new things, so he not only played that role for his team, he sought it out. And he did a great job.

After the class was over, we stood outside the building comparing notes. We also talked shop. Robert was going to try to spend a day at our office before the week was over.

We never spoke again. I tried calling Robert repeatedly. By the time I left town for Christmas break, I knew something was wrong. When I tried calling from the road on December 26th, Robert's phone had been disconnected and I grew very concerned. When I returned, we found out he was no longer at his present address. We employed other means of attempting to contact Robert, including a letter and it got through to his family. On Saturday his brother sent me an email. According to the medical examiner the cause of death was a blood clot in his lungs.

Robert came into our lives through the Harry Browne 2000 campaign. Even though he was a new Libertarian, he jumped in with both feet. He started off as the DC Volunteer Coordinator.

Before long he was volunteering at the campaign headquarters in Arlington, VA. His work was so good that after the nominating convention was over he was hired to work on the campaign's volunteer program fulltime.

Robert's presence in the office was a positive one and he got along with everyone. I noticed that he was particularly good on the phone. Robert had a gentle way about him but that didn't mean he was weak. He could be quite insistent when he wanted to be. He wasn't the least bit intimidated by handling difficult calling assignments, he was frequently successful in achieving his objective. Most of the time he'd finish the call with a new friend. Like I said before, he loved a good challenge.

I liked what I saw of Robert and began giving him media work. I was pleased with the results. With a month to go in the campaign I stole him from the Volunteer office and made him our Assistant Press Secretary. Robert didn't choose to join us in Atlanta for the Election Night Party because he was very active in the DC LP and wanted to participate in their Get Out The Vote activities and Election Night Party.

When the campaign ended, Robert was one of the people we asked to stay on for the start of the American Liberty Foundation, but his primary contribution to our post-election efforts came with RealCampaignReform.org. He became our resident expert on so-called campaign finance reform, and much of that website's content was submitted by him.

We had to lay Robert off in late April, 2001. He accepted it with class and dignity. In fact, he returned just three months later to do some volunteer work. In November I was excited because we were able to rehire him part-time. Robert was going to establish a media outreach operation and assist us with research — another of his strong suits.

When Robert came back on board in November he cautioned me that he might not stay long. He had lived in DC for nearly 15 years and wanted to see more of the world — especially overseas. "Fifteen years is too long to stay in one place," he said.

Robert's family posted the following obituary on Sunday (1/13) in The Washington Post:

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Robert M. Flohr, 36

On Saturday, December 15, 2001 in Washington, DC. Beloved son of Helga and Wolfgang Flohr of Laurel Lake, NJ; brother of Christine Flohr of Long Island; brother of Steven; brother-in-law of Wendy; loving uncle of Robin, Nicholas, Emily and Julia Flohr all of Syracuse, NY. Private memorial service was held at Laurel Lake community on December 29.

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We miss you, Robert — rest in peace, friend.

Jim Babka, President
American Liberty Foundation
January 14, 2002