Rear Admiral Horace B. Robertson, Jr.

Rear Admiral Horace B. Robertson, Jr., U.S. Navy (Retired) of Durham, North Carolina died on November 19, 2020 after a brief illness.
Admiral Robertson was a native of Kannapolis, North Carolina, the son of Ruth Montgomery Robertson and Horace Bascomb Robertson, Sr. He was born on November 13, 1923, and attended Kannapolis public schools, graduating from Cannon High School in 1940. He attended Davidson College for two years before being appointed to the Naval Academy in 1942. Following graduation from the Naval Academy in 1945, he served at sea in destroyers and on an anti-submarine warfare staff until 1950, when he was selected by the Navy for post-graduate education in law. He attended Georgetown Law School in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1953, having stood #1 in his graduating class and having served as Editor in Chief of the Georgetown Law Journal in his final year.
After one more tour at sea as Commanding Officer of a Landing Ship Tank, he became a Navy Judge Advocate, serving thereafter exclusively in legal billets. In this capacity he served successively in the Office of the Judge Advocate General, on the staff of the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet, and in the Naval District Headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1964, he was selected by Secretary of the Navy Paul H. Nitze to be his Special Counsel. Following that assignment, he attended the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, where he was awarded the Stephen B. Luce Award as the most outstanding student in his class. Upon graduation from that institution, he was sent to the Philippines, where he served as Assistant Chief of Staff for Legal Affairs to the Commander U.S. Naval Forces Philippines.
In 1970, then-Captain Robertson was tapped by Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, the Chief of Naval Operations, to be his Special Counsel, where he served for two years before his selection for Rear Admiral and appointment by the President as Deputy Judge Advocate General of the Navy. In 1975, the President appointed Rear Admiral Robertson as Judge Advocate General, the highest uniformed lawyer of the Navy, and as head of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, which consisted of approximately 800 uniformed lawyers with offices worldwide. Admiral Robertson retired from the Navy in August 1976, at which time he was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal for his service as Deputy Judge Advocate General and Judge Advocate General of the Navy.
In addition to the Distinguished Service Medal, Rear Admiral Robertson received the Legion of Merit (three awards).
Following retirement from the Navy, Rear Admiral Robertson was appointed Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law. In addition to his specialty of international law, Professor Robertson taught torts. From 1986 to 1989 he also served as Senior Associate Dean of the Law School. Upon his retirement in 1990, he was named Professor of Law (Emeritus) by the Duke Board of Trustees.
In the 1991-92 academic year, Professor Robertson returned to the Naval War College, Newport, R.I., where he taught International Law as Charles B. Stockton Professor of International Law.
Rear Admiral Robertson was an internationally recognized authority on the law of the sea and the law of armed conflict at sea. He served as a member of the United States delegation to two United Nations conferences on the law of the sea. He wrote extensively on the law of the sea and the law of armed conflict as was one of the principal authors of a 1995 draft code on the law of armed conflict at sea prepared under the auspices of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law of San Remo, Italy and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Rear Admiral Robertson is survived by his two sons, Mark, of Columbia, South Carolina, and James, of Austin, Texas; their wives, Deborah Robertson and Melinda Taylor; four grandchildren, Emily and her husband David Bosch, Helen, Nicholas, and Julia; and one great-grandson, Robertson Henry Bosch. Admiral Robertson’s wife, the former Patricia (Trish) Lavell, whom he married in 1947, died in 2016.
A private memorial service for Admiral Robertson will be held at Epworth United Methodist Church in Durham. Graveside services at the U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, will be held at a time later to be announced. In lieu of flowers, those who may wish to memorialize Admiral Robertson may make a gift to the Endowment Fund of Epworth United Methodist Church, Durham, N.C., or to the Horace B. and Patricia L. Robertson Scholarship at Duke University School of Law.