Robert Talcott Jolls

Robert Talcott Jolls, 82, died on August 1, 2025, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. After a life of extraordinary good health, he battled multiple health issues in his last years of life and passed away following several hospitalizations. Besides his good health, Bob’s life was marked by the fact that from his late teens it was shared with Cecelia, his wife of fifty-eight years, his true love, and his best friend. Bob’s life was also marked by his positivity and by the regard he consistently showed to family, friends, coworkers, and others. Bob was an astute listener whose bright-eyed curiosity—hearing others inquisitively, his head cocked to the side—was with him until almost the end of his life. These traits made him an extraordinary parent to his grateful children, Christine and Michael.

Bob was born on January 17, 1943, to Frances (Talcott) and Thomas Jolls in Chicago, Illinois. His childhood home was in Highland Park, Illinois.

He attended Miami of Ohio for two years before transferring to the University of Michigan, graduating with a BA in Economics in 1965 and an MBA in 1967. Bob and Cecelia Thurmaier married on December 31, 1966—between semesters at the University of Michigan. Bob’s first job with IBM took Bob and Cecelia to White Plains, New York. Their family grew to four with the births of their two children. Bob was a very involved father—helping kids with math problems around the breakfast table, leading weekend hikes in the New York State parks, building a treehouse in the forest behind the house, and playing with the kids in the waves during summers at the shore.

Bob’s first job with IBM was as a computer programmer. He continued with IBM for sixteen years, working in product and technical management roles and eventually relocating from New York to Los Gatos, California in 1977. Bob came west to work at IBM’s Santa Teresa lab, where he was in charge of the team that would continue development on IBM’s System R, a database system built as a research project and which later became the foundation for the databases which still dominate corporate computing to this day. In 1983 he was hired by Tandem Computers, then a growing company in Silicon Valley. If work could be fun, it was at Tandem, where Bob enjoyed being part of growing the company from $417 million in revenue when he joined to $1.92 billion when he left in 1991. He worked in product management and product and industry marketing. He finished his career with marketing and leadership positions at Cadence Design Systems and Digital Equipment Corporation.

After Bob’s productive and successful twenty-seven-year career in technology, he and Cecelia decided it was time for the next phase of their life together. At ages fifty-one and forty-eight, they moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to pursue academic opportunities at UNC Chapel Hill, volunteer work, global travel, and being dedicated grandparents. At UNC, Bob and Cecelia audited many classes, including in history, literature, music, and religion. They were avid supporters of the UNC Women’s Basketball Program and were season ticket holders for over twenty-five years. They enjoyed cheering their Tarheels on at home and at ACC tournaments in Greensboro.

One goal after retirement was to focus on volunteer activities. For many years they mentored three students in the Chapel Hill Blue Ribbon Mentor Program and taught English as a second language to Latino, Japanese, and Korean clients. Bob also coached students in UNC’s Business School Program entitled “Launching the Venture,” served as a board advisory member for the non-profit organization Nourish International, and served two terms as president of the Carolina Humanities board of directors.

Bob and Cecelia loved to travel, and retirement gave them the time to enjoy experiencing the world. A favorite activity was taking cycling trips to both Italy and France (multiple times), as well as a favorite trip to Ireland. In addition, they enjoyed trips with the University of Michigan and UNC to Israel, Ireland, Turkey, and France. They also traveled with the North Carolina Museum of Art to Europe and Japan.

Perhaps the highlight of retirement was when Bob became a grandfather. He and Cecelia took advantage of every opportunity to be engaged and loving grandparents. Holidays were a particular focus, with the entire extended family gathering every year for either Christmas or Thanksgiving despite the need for cross-country travel, and with Bob and Cecelia traveling to California to experience Halloween and Easter time with Mike’s family—wife Liz, and kids Sarah and Cora. Each summer, Bob and Cecelia rented a house in Falmouth, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod where family members would meet up for a fun time at “the beach house.” Through these many beach house vacations, Bob authored a personal “Beach House Book” for each grandchild, including photographs and witty poetry and descriptions of their adventures together.

Bob was preceded in death by his parents, brother Tom Jolls, and sister Katherine Jolls. He is survived by his wife Cecelia, children Christine and Michael and their spouses, and four grandchildren.