Robert Majors ’57, 1934–2023

Robert “Bob” “Maj” Majors ’57, longtime Cornell fundraiser and alumni director, died at age 88 on Oct. 25, 2023, in Mount Vernon, Iowa.

At Cornell he was a Delt, president of the Letterman’s Club, and a championship wrestler—winning three Midwest Conference Championships and the 1954 Nebraska AAU Championship. 

He began his career as a teacher and coach in Sweet Home, Oregon, serving as head wrestling coach and assistant football and baseball coach. His wrestling team won the state championship in 1958, and he developed a wrestling program at the elementary school level that rapidly spread throughout the state. He and his team earned another state title after he moved to Portland, Oregon, as head wrestling coach. 

Majors left his coaching career and returned to Iowa in 1962. His love of wrestling never wavered, though, and he started the youth wrestling program in Mount Vernon, serving more than 30 consecutive years as a volunteer coach. 

He was a Cornell staff member for 32 years, from 1966 to 1998, serving as director of the Annual Fund, director of development, director of alumni affairs, and director of planned giving and major gift solicitations. He was elected to the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame and honored in 2002 with a Leadership & Service Award.

He and his wife, Jan, were both widowed when they married in 1978. He is survived by his wife, two sons and two stepsons, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.