Robert Leon Lehr

Robert Leon Lehr of Norman, Oklahoma, passed away August 12, 2022, at the age of 93. Born at the Lehr family home on the farm in Freedom, Oklahoma on June 15, 1929, to Carl and Opal Lehr, he attended Sunny Slope Elementary School just a mile and a half north of the family home. He attended there through the 8th grade and went on to attend High School in Woodward, Oklahoma and then attended Northwestern State College in Alva, Oklahoma before transferring to the University of Oklahoma in the Fall of 1949. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in 1951 and completed his Master’s Degree in Regional and City Planning in 1955. In 1966 he resumed his education at the University of Pittsburgh where he continued to study Public Administration. While attending Northwestern State College, he met Rosalie Henderson of Alva. They became engaged and were married July 9, 1950, in Rosalie’s family home. Robert and Rosalie then moved to Norman where they raised five children, with the exception of one year when they lived in Ada, Oklahoma and another year when the family lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Robert was employed by the Research Institute of OU through the Institute of Community Development while working on his Master’s Degree. His work involved helping towns and cities of Oklahoma with the management of their growth and development. He was retained to help teach some of the classes in the Department of Regional and City Planning. Upon receiving his Master’s Degree, he assumed a full professorship which he maintained until his retirement from OU in 1987. A dedicated member of the faculty and respected urban planner, he directed the preparation of comprehensive plans for many Oklahoma communities, including Ada, Blackwell, Bristow, Chandler, Fairview, Guthrie, Lindsay, and Norman. He co-authored more than forty major planning studies during his thirty-four years of practice. A highly respected teacher of Housing, Neighborhood Development, and Community Organization, he also held joint teaching appointments in Geography and Sociology with a unique sensitivity to persons from different cultures and ethnic groups. He was selected as the Academic Advisor for minority and international students of Regional and City Planning, serving from 1969 to 1987. With constant good humor, astute insight, and a delightful wit, he informed and brightened the lives of innumerable students, colleagues, and friends. Over the years and into his retirement , Robert enjoyed helping raise grandkids and attending ball games, livestock shows, recitals and such; playing golf with a few select and privileged friends; and making barbed wire crosses to give to anyone who so desired. It is estimated that he made well over a thousand crosses, now enjoyed across the United States and as far away as France and Israel. Robert was preceded in death by his mother and father; three sisters, Vada Rose, Bonita, and Wanita; daughter Yvonne Denise Butler; and wife of sixty-six years, Rosalie Rae Lehr. He is survived by two sisters, Carol June Ingraham and Marilyn Iris Fussell, both of Mooreland, Oklahoma; four children, Stephen Robert Lehr and wife, Lesa Ann of Chickasha, Oklahoma, Janelle Kay Shepherd and husband, Jonathan (DVM) of Clinton, Oklahoma, Carl Warren Lehr and wife, Nina of Owasso, Oklahoma, and Lisa Reneè Lehr of Norman, as well as eight grandchildren, ten great grandchildren, and one great, great grandchild. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made through the funeral home to the American Cancer Society or Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation for Alzheimer’s research. (In memory of his wife, Rosalie Lehr)

Robert Leon Lehr

June 15, 1929 - August 12, 2022