Bob Healy

Bob Healy

MACT and the entire theatre community lost a good friend when former MACT Board member Bob Healy died in St. Paul on December 18, 2014.

His obituary is online at http://www.startribune.com/obituaries/detail/55675/?fullname=robert-james-healy.

His 2007 Fliehr Award summary is here.

Bob was one of the longest-serving MACT Board members, with his involvement dating to the very first MACT Festival in 1973, which his Theatre in the Round won with a production of “The Unknown Soldier,” which they took (and he accompanied) all the way to the international stage in Monaco.

He probably attended nearly every MACT Festival until the last few years, and his wife Marilyn Murray performed in many festival shows, as well as at TRP, Park Square and several Irish community theaters with which they were involved for years.

Many knew Bob (Robert James) through theater, the legal arena in which he worked, the liberal political realm in which he reveled, or the gourmet dining club which he and Marilyn often hosted which paired a great meal with the reading of a play. We envied his amazing, gleeful retelling of theatre stories — especially when he told about the instant outpouring of praise in Monaco for TRP’s show: I believe it was a mixture of “Bravo!” “Brava!” “Bravi!” (great job, men, women and all, respectively). 

He was a terrific and involved resource to MACT, and must have been also to TRP and the local Irish theaters. His laughter was robust and full, and he was one of the very finest theatre people imaginable.

The family home is at 761 Osceola, St. Paul 55105. The obit said, “In lieu of memorials, go out and watch a play.”