On May 1st, 2026, Robert Dennis Maum passed away at the age of 84. Known as “Bob” by those close to him, he was a man of love. He loved his family, his wife and five children, his friends and his dogs. He loved life and enjoyed it. And he even loved love – ending many evenings with a Hallmark movie and tears in his eyes.

Born in 1942 in Atlanta, Georgia to Dorothy George and Vernon Braugh Maum, Bob spent his early childhood in the Atlanta area before moving with his mother to Irvington, NY, where he demonstrated a propensity for sports and friendship-making that would come to define him. Captain of many teams in high school (and the unofficial head of the “Bob Maum” fan club that his female classmates founded because they thought he looked like Elvis), he received a track scholarship to Syracuse University where he studied economics. Bob served as a First Lieutenant in the Vietnam War in the area of intelligence, settling in Fairfield County, CT, at the war’s end. Though he started his professional career in sales, Bob’s charisma and ambition paved his entrance to investment banking. Cutting his teeth at a boutique firm, his keen mind and affable nature soon landed him an interview with Salomon Brothers, the Wall Street firm that everyone in finance dreamed of working at in the 1980s. Once employed, Bob rose through the ranks and made partner within four years of his initial hiring – the quickest rise to partner on record at the time. The fact that Bob wasn’t pushy and made friends out of strangers were reasons frequently given by colleagues and clients as to why Bob was so good at what he did.

From his thirties on, Bob’s love of sports continued in lockstep with his growing business success. An avid tennis player, he won numerous championships at the Stamford Yacht Club in Connecticut. He enjoyed boating, horseback riding, and golf, which he played with great dedication at the Westchester Country Club in Rye, NY, where he was a longstanding member. His mother (known as “Gabby” by her family) was a beloved and omnipresent member of his household, often spending the weekends at the Maum’s backcountry Greenwich house where – even though she wasn’t a natural or impassioned cook – she would devote many a Saturday to preparing the brown bag fried chicken recipe that her son adored.

In 2008, the family relocated to Chattanooga, TN, where Bob’s mother was originally from. The move ushered in a welcomed pace adjustment – he began to bask in a simpler, slower life adorned with Southern comforts. Residents of Riverview can attest that every day at 5pm, Bob was out on the deck, enjoying a glass of wine and country music on the stereo before his family joined him for dinner.

Described posthumously by one neighbor as “the kind of character that Ernest Hemingway would write” (which would have delighted Bob, as Hemingway was one of his favorite writers), he was always big on style – a discerning dresser, never without a clean shirt and starched collar. Bob and his wife Carolyn have been known for their bold interior design preferences, stamping a signature “Adirondack Great Camp” style on every house they’ve lived in. Bob’s passion for dancing was so pronounced that, at 83 years old, he had to be escorted off the dancefloor at his youngest son Blake’s Atlanta wedding because he’d danced the night (and his knees) away.

A man of habit, Bob’s Chattanooga days began with dear friends, solving the world’s problems over Rembrandt’s coffee with a generous splash of half and half. His characteristic ability to make longtime friends from strangers followed him throughout his life. Golf outings with his sons at the Chattanooga Golf & Country Club were only sacrificed for Sunday noon phone calls with his youngest daughter Ashley, who lives in the Netherlands. While he’d sometimes complain how often he had to go out for groceries because his family ate so much, it was the world’s most poorly guarded secret that Bob’s “Walmart runs” in his prized Porsche Cayenne usually ended with a malted milkshake or another clandestine treat.

All his life, Bob’s dogs provided him companionship and comfort. While advanced age precluded him from keeping the running tally of five dogs that he preferred, his canine friends were always big-hearted, big-breed dogs renowned for their incessant drooling and shedding. Across 35 years of marriage, Bob and Carolyn shared a total of twelve: Bernese Mountain Dogs, St. Bernards, and a Newfoundland. For the last decades of his life, Bob’s greatest joy was preparing dinner for his growing family to enjoy on the deck at the long, Old English dining table his eldest daughter used at her wedding reception. He’d have his huge dogs at his feet, his favorite tunes on the stereo, and an array of food on the table including “gluten-free” options that he didn’t understand but prided himself on sourcing for the daughters-in-law that he loved like his own kids.

Bob Maum passed away peacefully in the mountain home he so adored, steps away from the deck and long table that represented all of life’s best offerings. He is lovingly survived by his wife Carolyn Ann Maum, his children Courtney Brae Maum, Brendan Tyler Maum, Ryan William Maum, Blake Logan Maum, Ashley Grace Maum and their spouses Diego, Jaime, Hope, and Margot, his granddaughter Gabby, and his canine companions Lula and Hemingway. In lieu of flowers, please open a nice bottle of red wine, crank up the country music, and share a meal with those you most adore.