Robert M. Eisendrath, 94, died recently at his home in Lexington. He was educated at Harvard University, Northwestern Medical School, and the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, enjoying his patients and practice of psychiatry and psychoanalysis until retirement in 2015. But those who knew him well could tell that his heart belonged to the Francis Parker School in Chicago, Ill., where he attended all 12 grades. Many important friends and relatives all share in their well-admired community school experience.
A gregarious and witty man, he enjoyed meeting, and occasionally offering his help, to friends and relatives alike. “It is a privilege to be asked,” he would say. He loved his work as a psychiatrist, which he aptly described as being a “professional listener.” He fell in love with Martha’s Vineyard while visiting cousins there in his college days, and deeply enjoyed the peace and beauty of the Island thereafter. His presence will always be felt there by friends and family alike.
He is survived by his oldest son, Eric, son of his first wife of 14 years, Janet Dennis Eisendrath; wife, Jessie Meyer Eisendrath; and their children, Indigo Elizabeth Eisendrath and Remy John Eisendrath (twins), and Dill August Eisendrath; sons by his marriage of 52 years to Dianthe Warren Eisendrath, Noah Robert Eisendrath and wife Rachel Perkins Eisendrath and their three sons Logan Robert Eisendrath, and Bodhi William Eisendrath and Gavin Luke Eisendrath (twins); and Matthew Richard Eisendrath and wife Patience June Eisendrath and their children Ava June Eisendrath and James Warren Eisendrath.
His devoted family created a circle of loving pride around their husband, father, grandfather, and cousin, who had been so central to all of them. At one point he had quietly declared, “I have been very lucky in my family and friends, and have lived a fulfilled life.”