Born Feb. 1, 1924, into a socially prominent Boston family, Robert’s childhood was full of travel and outdoor adventure: skiing, bicycling, mountain climbing, horseback trips, hiking, kayaking and sailing. His love and appreciation of nature and of the outdoors was boundless, right to the end.
Robert enlisted for World War II at the age of 18 and spent four years in action all over Europe, in units devoted to intercepting and translating coded enemy messages. Following the war, he returned to The United States to complete an undergraduate degree at Harvard, married and had two children, Kathleen and Sara.
He got his law degree at Yale, then served ten years with The Marshall Plan — precursor to USAID — while living in Italy, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Washington, D.C. He resigned from the Foreign Service in reaction to American policies toward Southeast Asia, moved to Italy and devoted himself to writing.
In the mid and late 1960s, intrigued by the counterculture movement back home, Robert returned briefly to the U.S., completing his first novel, The Joshua Tree. He then returned to Italy and married again and became father to a son, Alexis.
His third and most enduring relationship, and later marriage in 1978, was to Penny, an English woman who had one child of her own, Dominic. Rob and Penny have two sons together, Amiel and Arian.
Among Robert Cabot’s brave undertakings were his 30-day solo crossing of the Atlantic in a small sailboat and hiking expeditions including the Khunjerab Pass, above 16,000 feet. Back at home in the U.S., Rob and Penny spent months wandering hither and yon in a camper van, visiting intentional communities, including some which seemed a bit too odd for them to join. Instead, with friends, they decided to establish a new community, Linnaea, on Cortes, a small island in British Columbia: 314 acres of beautiful farmland, where they milked cows, planted potatoes, and raised hay. Robert also learned, perforce, to repair ancient farm machinery.
As part of studying communities, Robert learned a lot about land trusts, then used his resources and the support of community members to assist several conservation organizations in the U.S. and Canada purchase land and establish anti-development protections. This was unique at that time because established conservation networks (such as The Nature Conservancy) were not willing to protect inhabited land. The land trusts Robert and Penny helped create still exist to this day.
Later, in the 1980s, Cabot joined his friend Bob Fuller, a self-described “citizen-diplomat,” helping to improve superpower relations during the Cold War, traveling to the Soviet Union and Afghanistan, fostering citizen-to-citizen understanding in hopes of sustainable peace.
Penny and Robert’s primary residence for the last four decades was Whidbey Island in Washington. They purchased a second home in Patagonia in 2014 and spent increasing amounts of time in southern Arizona. His 100th birthday was celebrated in Patagonia and documented by the PRT in its January 2024 edition. At the age of 102, he died peacefully on Aug. 18, 2026, with Penny at his side in their Patagonia home. He is buried in the Patagonia Cemetery.
Robert had a wonderful, unique and varied life. He leaves behind his wife, Penny, and children Kathy, Sara, Alexis, Dominic, Amiel and Arian, numerous grand and great-grandchildren, Holly, his amazing caregiver over the last year, and many friends and admirers, all of whom feel the loss of his warm presence. Many of us were amazed — and impressed — that a person with such gifts, advantages, and attainments could be as warm, as available, and free of grandiosity as Robert Cabot was. He will be missed … and is already.