Robert S. Lambert

Dr. Robert Stansbury Lambert, age 98, of Clemson, SC, died February 10, 2018. Dr. Lambert was born in New York, NY, the son of Robert Brightwell Lambert and Dorothy Lambert. He grew up in Rutherford, NJ, and graduated from Carson Long Military Academy, New Bloomfield, PA. He earned his B. A. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1942. In World War II he served as first lieutenant, infantry, Army of the United States, 1942-1946, in the U.S., England, and France. He was decorated with the Purple Heart.

Dr. Lambert married Edythe Rutherford on March 7, 1946. He earned a Ph.D. in history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1951. Surviving are his wife Edythe Lambert, his daughter Margaret Anne Lambert and son-in-law Peter Barton; several nieces and nephews; and a former son-in-law Thomas W. Whisnant. His second daughter, Dorothy Lee Lambert Whisnant, is deceased.

He was instructor and assistant professor of history at Clemson College (SC), 1949-1952; he served as professor of history, Vincennes University (IN), 1952-1953; associate professor at Georgia Teachers College, 1953-1954; associate professor and professor Shorter College, 1954-1956 (Rome, GA).

From 1956-1985 he was professor of history at Clemson University. There Dr. Lambert headed the Department of Social Sciences and History from 1963 to 1974, and he was a member of the South Carolina Archives and History Commission from 1963 to 1974.
Dr. Lambert received several research grants including a National Endowment for the Humanities bicentennial grant, and he belonged to professional organizations including the South Carolina Historical Association where he served as president in 1965.
Robert Lambert's book, South Carolina Loyalists in the American Revolution, was published by the University of South Carolina Press in 1987 and reprinted by the Clemson University Digital Press in 2010. Dr. Lambert was a longtime member of the Clemson United Methodist Church, for which he wrote South Carolina Methodists in Mission: A History of the Clemson United Methodist Church, 1908-1998.

His community affiliations included serving as a member of the finance committee for the founding of the Clemson Day Care Center, which opened in 1969 and is now the Clemson Child Development Center. Dr. Lambert was a volunteer with Clemson Congregations in Touch and worked at their interdenominational food pantry, Clemson Community Care, in the late 1980s and 1990s. In 1991 he and Edythe Lambert received a human rights award from members of Baha'i faith in Pickens County, SC. He was an active member of the Democratic Party.
The Lambert family is grateful to the staff and caregivers of Clemson Downs and Providence Care.

A private burial will be at Old Stone Church Cemetery in Clemson.

A memorial service will be 2 PM, Thursday, February 22, 2018, at Clemson United Methodist Church with a reception of friends immediately following the service at the church.

In lieu of flowers memorials in his name may be directed to the Clemson United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 590, Clemson, SC 29633 or Clemson Community Care, P. O. Box 271, Clemson, SC 29633.

Condolences may be expressed online at www.robinsonfuneralhomes.com or sent to Duckett-Robinson Funeral Home, 108 Cross Creek Road, Central, S.C. 29630.