A Chicago-area fellow, Bob came to the University of Delaware in 1970 to teach in the School of Education and is
about to retire after 37 years. He has been a club member for more than 20 years, and has been running since 1972.
His wife Judy is the CEO of the Chesapeake Bay Girl Scout Council. They have a daughter with a husband and 3 grandsons,
and a son with wife and two granddaughters.
Bob began running in high school in the mid-1950s as a very skinny cross-country runner on a team that took 8th place in Illinois
during his senior year. He ran track and cross-country at Beloit College, Wisconsin, where he finished 4th in a 19 mile race in
Indianapolis as a freshman, not knowing any better! After a hiatus for graduate school and time with a young family, he rediscovered
distance running in 1972, running a comfortable 10-15 miles a week at first. Then he ran his first race in 10 years at the Newark Turkey
Trot in 1974 and caught the road-racing bug.
Bob got serious in the late 1970s, as he ran his first marathon at Philly in 1976 on a terrible 92 degree day and then completed
31 more over the next 20 years, 18 of which were at the Boston Marathon where he set his personal best at 2:42. He also won
the Master’s division in the 1983 Philly Marathon in 2:46. His last marathon was the incredible 100th Boston Marathon in 1996
with 37,000 others. He now runs about 20 races a year, from the 5k to the Half-Marathon, often winning his age division.
He runs about 30-35 miles a week.
Now in the 65-69 age division, Bob set 7 state age-group records in 2006. His best recent efforts
are the Valley Forge five-miler in 33:48 and the Broad Street 10 miler in 68:58 in 2006, and the Caesar Rodney Half-Marathon in 1:37:59
in 2007. Bob has also been active in the USATF Grand Prix 3-state series, finishing 6th overall male in 2006. The club has awarded Bob
with the Comeback Runner of the Year (1998) after his heart-attack, the Hall of Fame (2000), and Male Runner of the Year (2006).
Now he just hopes to keep chugging along.
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Robert Taggart
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Run, Race, Enjoy!