A Lifetime, A Legacy: Robert Taylor
Bob Taylor at his law-school graduation in 1974.
Cape May County suffered a big loss with the passing of Robert Taylor at the age of 74. The Dennis Township resident, who grew up in Stone Harbor and served in the U.S. Army before starting his law career, died on April 28, 2022.
As a talented football and baseball player at Middle Township High School in the 1960s, he was nicknamed “Bullet Bob.” This was quite the compliment from his peers. The original “Bullet Bob” was the late sprinter and football player Bob Hayes, who won an Olympic gold medal in 1964 and a Super Bowl as a Dallas Cowboys receiver in 1972.
Little did anyone know at the time that the local teen dubbed “Bullet Bob” would score his own big wins by building a widely accomplished career in a field familiar with real bullets.
After graduating from James Madison University and completing law school at Washington and Lee University, Bob practiced law in Cape May and Wildwood before setting up shop in Stone Harbor, where he worked as a lawyer for more than 40 years.
Noting her father’s unending willingness to help others, Katie Thornton, one of Bob’s four daughters, mentions that her dad handled more than a few cases pro bono. As a founding member of the Stone Harbor Rescue Squad, the lawyer represented that group pro bono, too.
Attorney Jane Hoy first worked for Bob in his private law practice as an intern in 1985. “Bob went out on a limb and hired me” as an attorney, Hoy says with gratitude. They worked together first as partners, and later without a formal partnership, for close to 20 years.
“Bob was a great mentor, a wonderful friend, a very smart man, and a good person. He taught me to be respectful to all parties involved in cases, including opposing counsel,” Hoy notes. “Bob often said, ‘Remember, Jane, what goes around comes around.’”
During the 80s and early 90s, Bob served as a municipal prosecutor in Middle Township, West Cape May, and Lower Township as well. His career within the criminal justice system took another turn when he was selected by gubernatorial appointment to call for order in the courtrooms of Middle Township and Lower Township in his role as Judge Robert Taylor.
When he closed his private practice, Judge Taylor became Cape May County Prosecutor Taylor. He served in that position from 2004 until he retired in 2017.
Among other responsibilities as Cape May County Prosecutor, Bob managed and supervised his newly initiated Special Weapons and Tactics Team. The SWAT team consists of “two squads of municipal and Prosecutor’s Office law enforcement officers, capable of responding to any critical event in the County at a moment’s notice,” he wrote in the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office 2016 Annual Report.
Wildwood Crest Police Chief Robert Lloyd, Bob’s nephew, became an operator in the Prosecutor’s Office’s SWAT team in 2011. He saw his beloved Uncle Bob “in the command vehicle on many scenes,” he says.
Off duty, the two of them had many memorable conversations at family gatherings. Sometimes they disagreed on a subject, but they always disagreed respectfully, Lloyd says. “My uncle was a wealth of knowledge. In his position as prosecutor, he was always passionate about wanting every decision he made to be the right decision for the people of Cape May County,” the chief concludes.
In another initiative, Bob decided that local waterways needed protection.
“The Office procured a 29-foot, Metal Shark Patrol Boat to address the County’s maritime security concerns around its various ports and to the Cape May-Lewes Ferry, and to afford tactical units with a valuable asset to respond to emergency incidents in the County's waterways and the Delaware Bay,” Bob wrote in his Office’s 2016 annual report. Grant funds, not taxpayer funds, covered the cost of the patrol boat, he added.
Not only that, the prosecutor initiated programs for adults and schoolchildren that tackled issues like bullying, domestic violence, cyber bullying, sexting, and illegal drug use.
Her father’s initiatives addressing bullying and domestic violence began as small educational programs for parents, educators, and law-enforcement personnel, says Katie, a high school psychologist. These small programs, featuring specialists addressing those pressing issues, grew into free educational conferences with lunch included at the Wildwood Convention Center, where 75 to 100 attendees found a wealth of information and resources.
“Dad was the champion of anti-bullying before it became a hot topic,” Katie says.
Bob was also passionate about letting youngsters know about the damage done by cyberbullying, sexting, domestic violence, and illegal drug use. So, he sent seasoned detectives into Cape May County Schools with age-appropriate messages on those subjects. Because real detectives offer real-life examples from their experiences on the job, these presentations prove to be highly effective, notes Thornton.
Under the Prosecutor's Office’s Pills to Heroin program, also initiated by Bob, detectives addressed the dangers and damage done by substance abuse. Plus, they let students know in no uncertain terms how one thing can lead to another. For example, when dabbling in illegal drugs, that “just marijuana” could be laced with deadly fentanyl, Katie asserts.
Bob worked with and held two local organizations – Hope One and Cape Assist – in high regard for their tireless efforts to prevent drug addiction and offer paths to recovery.
Career milestones like Bob’s don’t happen on their own.
Throughout his marriages, “Dad always worked,” says daughter Tracy Hague.
Their father’s “work and what he accomplished there” was just as important to him as his family and family time, says daughter Robyn Taylor. “He prioritized both equally.”
Indeed, “Dad came home faithfully at 6pm every night for dinner with the family,” oldest daughter Tracy Hague says. Her sisters agree. On nights when he found his teenage daughters quarreling, Bob’s choice of words effectively brought calm to the situation. “Dad would say, ‘Girls, stop the consternation,’” Jennifer recalls. “We would all look at one another and say, ‘Consternation, what’s that mean?’”
Their father “moved mountains to set aside time for us,” Tracy says.
Bob moved some of those mountains in order to watch his girls in action at Tracy’s and Jennifer’s Middle Township High School tennis matches and Robyn’s and Katie’s dance competitions in Towson, Md., and on Long Island, N.Y. Closer to home, there were family times with Dad on the beach, on the dock fishing, dinner outings at Marabella’s Family Restaurant and dessert outings at Springer’s Homemade Ice Cream. And Bob treated and escorted Tracy and Jennifer to a Jackson 5 concert and Robyn and Katie to a Taylor Swift performance during their tween years. The Taylor girls could also count on their father to keep up with their accomplishments and visit them during their college days. He insisted they all go to college.
“My dad had this expression, ‘Give yourself a Taylor girl pat on the back,’ which he said when you did something well,” Katie recalls. “Dad inspired us to do well; he did not pressure us to do well.”
Her sisters all note their father’s genuine interest in them and their academics, hobbies and sports, his belief in the value of education and hard work and the endless encouragement he extended to all family members and many other people who crossed his path.
“Dad was definitely a dad of daughters,” Tracy says. “He supported us in any and everything we wanted to try. Her sister Jennifer quotes their father as consistently saying, “Never let someone tell you can’t do anything because you’re a girl.”
Oftentimes, Bob’s daughters learned about their father’s professional achievements and much of what he did to improve others’ lives from people who approached him during family outings.
“Wherever we went, we ran into someone who knew Dad,” someone with whom he would speak with for at least 10 minutes, even during dinners, says Robyn. The stories that those people told spoke volumes about Bob. “Dad was very humble,” she adds.
Taylor family time also meant lots of extended family time at home and on vacations.
The Taylor girls all mention that their father and his siblings – the late Avalon Police Chief Butch Taylor and sister Nancy Taylor-Lloyd – were always there for one another. “Uncle Butch did Thanksgiving, Nancy did Christmas, and Dad did New Year’s,” Jennifer says of their holiday celebrations. And there were countless family barbecues with lots of storytelling.
Along with birthdays, First Holy Communions, weddings and more celebrated together, their Aunt Nancy remembers the family’s “Tay-Lloyd” trips and vacations that she and her family enjoyed with her beloved brothers Bob and Butch and their families over the years.
On some of those occasions, Bob could be counted upon to cut the rug.
“Dad did a funny dance that we call the ‘Bert Shuffle,’” Jennifer says with a laugh. Bob made his Bert Shuffle moves to the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up.”
Togetherness in play and work has long been a family tradition, Taylor-Lloyd says of her industrious family members. Everyone pitched in to help at Taylor’s Dairy Freeze back when it stood on the corner of Second Avenue and 95th Street and Bud’s Market on the corner of Third Avenue and 83rd Street. Helping out whenever needed “was just a given, it wasn’t expected,” she muses. “It’s how we were raised, how we lived and how we still live.”
Jennifer reminisces about a surprising question that her father raised in his later years one morning over a Sunday breakfast. “Was I a good ‘girl dad?’” Mr. Taylor asked.
Without a doubt, that answer is affirmative.
The Taylor girls can’t say enough good things about the former Cape May County Prosecutor who ended every conversation with each of them and his grandchildren by saying “Love you. Bye … ”
