Robert A. (Bob) Schoenberg, GrS’89, the founding and longtime director of Penn’s LGBT Center, died on August 2 due to complications from cancer. He was 76.

Dr. Schoenberg was born in Erie, Pennsylvania and graduated from Erie’s Academy High School. He went on to receive a bachelor of arts from the University of Rochester in 1966; two years later, he received a master’s degree in social work from Penn’s School of Social Work (now the School of Social Policy and Practice). After spending the better part of a decade working at the Elwyn Institute and St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children, Dr. Schoenberg returned to Penn in 1976 to become a lecturer in the School of Social Work. He took initiative in University life, serving on several University Council committees. 

In 1982, a gay sophomore at Penn was brutally beaten on Locust Walk, and in response, the University hired Dr. Schoenberg to work part-time as a point person to deal with gay and lesbian concerns around campus (only the second such person in the country at the time). Dr. Schoenberg worked through the Office of Student Activities, stationed at Houston Hall. In the mid-1980s, the Office of Student Activities was restructured, and Dr. Schoenberg took the leadership of a new Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Alliance, which commandeered office space on Locust Walk and became a University institution. 

As the program grew to include work-study students and additional staff members, Dr. Schoenberg continued to advocate for LGBTQ voices across campus, serving on Faculty Senate and University Council committees and writing op-eds in campus publications, including Almanac (December 7, 1982, May 13, 1986), castigating homophobic incidents on campus and calling for University to do better by its LGBTQ students. At the same time, Dr. Schoenberg continued his education, earning a doctorate in social work in 1989, and continued to lecture in the School of Social Work.

With a new decade, Penn’s LGBT Center (a name it assumed in 1999 with the addition of “T” for transgender) came under the purview of the Vice Provost for University Life (VPUL). In 1992, VPUL formed an HIV/AIDS Task Force to brainstorm “strategies and services which address the prevention and response to the growing incidence of HIV/AIDS infection within the campus community”; Dr. Schoenberg was tasked to lead the committee and gather community input (Almanac December 1, 1992). The committee’s report (Almanac March 22, 1994) emphasized destigmatizing AIDS education and recommended establishing a testing site on campus, a function that the Student Health Service now covers. Dr. Schoenberg also lobbied for employee domestic partnership benefits at Penn, which were instated in 1994.

In the late 1990s, Dr. Schoenberg led a fund-raising effort for the LGBT Center to have a physical home at Penn, raising $2.5 million in the process. In 2002, the LGBT Center moved into its current space on Spruce Street, a testament to Dr. Schoenberg’s masterful leadership of the organization (Almanac September 24, 2002). Penn’s LGBT Center has been consistently recognized as one of the leading centers of its type in the U.S. 

In 2004, Dr. Schoenberg joined the inaugural Affirmative Action Council; the same year, he joined Penn’s 25-Year Club. Dr. Schoenberg was one of the pioneers of Penn’s movement toward diversity, serving on the Committee on Diversity and Equity and advocating for funding for LGBTQ programs. Dr. Schoenberg was also involved with local institutions that benefited the LGBTQ community, like Penn’s Center for AIDS Research, the Delaware Valley Legacy Fund, the Council for Relationships, the LGBT Elder Initiative in Philadelphia, and the William Way LGBT Community Center in Philadelphia. 

Dr. Schoenberg’s work at Penn and elsewhere has been widely recognized. In 1988, he was named Social Worker of the Year by the Philadelphia Division of the National Association of Social Workers (Almanac May 3, 1988), and a decade later, he was named chair of the National Consortium of Directors of LGBT Resources in Higher Education (Almanac January 25, 2000). 

In 2011, he received a Friend of Life Award from ActionAIDS, a Philadelphia organization he co-founded in 1986, and in 2017, when he retired as director of the LGBT Center, the building was renamed the Robert Schoenberg Carriage House in his honor (Almanac October 3, 2017). 

“We mourn the loss of a beloved Penn pathbreaker,” said Penn President Amy Gutmann. “To be the first of anything takes enormous bravery and resilient pride. Bob was among the very first staff members at any U.S. college or university to be devoted entirely to LGBTQ support and advocacy. We at Penn loved Bob and Bob loved Penn, always pushing Penn to be better. He was so very proud of the diverse and inclusive Penn that he helped to create. His legacy will live on always.”

“Bob truly was a pioneer,” said Erin Cross, current director of Penn’s LGBT Center. “He helped create the LGBTQ+ student services field, laying the foundation for the over 200 LGBTQ+ campus centers across North America. His legacy will live on through all who use their services, but especially those who are part of the Penn LGBT Center’s family.” 

Dr. Schoenberg is survived by his brother Leonard Schoenberg (Roberta) and his sister, Susan Forman (Jeffrey). Memorial donations can be made in Dr. Schoenberg’s honor to Penn’s LGBT Center; Action Wellness; the John J. Wilcox, Jr. LGBT Archives located at the William Way LGBT Community Center; Lambda Legal; the LGBT Elder Initiative; and the Donald Millinger/Gary Clinton LGBTQ Endowed Fund at the University of Rochester.

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