Robert Rhode

Robert William “Bob” Rohde, 88, passed away peacefully at home in Syracuse NY, October 17, 2024.

Rohde was born in Syracuse, NY. After high school, he enrolled in the Navy and was assigned to Aviation Squadron VAP-62 in Norfolk Virginia and Jacksonville Florida, after which he earned an A.A.S. degree in Horticulture from SUNY Morrisville. He was employed by the Douglas Fir Plywood Company in Coquille Oregon, before returning to Syracuse, where he established Cherry Valley Nursery and provided landscaping services in Central New York.

He then earned a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree with honors from the University of Georgia. During his summers he was project supervisor at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park (Fort Clatsop) near Astoria Oregon, and also worked at Whitman National Monument at Walla Walla Washington. Upon graduation Rohde was project planner with McLindon & Associates in Little Rock, AR, where he developed the long range plan for Maumelle, AR, (a new town with a target population of 20,000) and prepared a development plan for Bull Shoals National Recreation Area on the Arkansas-Missouri border for the U.S. Army of Engineers. 

Rohde returned to Syracuse in 1965 as Special Projects Supervisor and Director of Urban Renewal Planning with the Syracuse Department of Planning. He was project planner with Planners Collaborative in Syracuse preparing development plans for communities in Upstate New York and Vermont. With the merger of city and county planning, he was Deputy Director of the Syracuse-Onondaga Planning Agency. The last 20 years of his career were spent as Syracuse Zoning Administrator. During retirement Rohde Served on the Syracuse Planning Commission. 

He was predeceased by his parents, William and Arlene (Baker) Rohde, his beloved son John (Andrea Micelli) Rohde and his first wife Virginia (Armistead). He is survived by his wife Donna (O’Mahony) Rohde, his daughters Elizabeth (Anthony) Carbone, and Mary Lynn Mahan (Nick Panis), his son Daniel (Elisha Muskat), his second wife Marilyn Higgins, his stepson Brian (Kristi) O’Mahony, his grandchildren Ben Carbone, Riley and Sadie Mahan, Sara and Sammy Rohde, his brother Walter (Yvonne) Rohde, his sisters Barbara “Zoe” Rohde, Sue (Pete) Moyer, Lynn (Ron) Brzostek and numerous nieces, nephews and step-grandchildren.

Services will be heldat 1 pm on Tuesday November 26,2024 at May Memorial Unitarian Universalist Society . In lieu of flowers donations may be sent to the Alzheimer’s Association.