Robert J. Doub, former president of Baltimore Therapeutic Equipment Co. who was also an inveterate power boater, died Tuesday at his Ruxton home of heart failure. He was 80.
Robert Jack Doub was born in Washington and raised in Baltimore. While a student at McDonogh School, he played football, basketball and lacrosse. During his senior year, he was presented the Maryland State McCormick Unsung Hero Award for football. He was later inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame.
After graduating in 1952 from McDonogh, he entered Princeton University, where he continued playing lacrosse as well as rugby and football. While a student at Princeton, he was a member of the Nassau and Cottage clubs.
He served in the Army for two years and in 1958, he went to work in Baltimore for IBM as a computer salesman. In 1967, he became the owner of B.R. Smith Co., which was a power transmission distributor.
Mr. Doub, who was known as Jack, had been president of the Bearing Specialists of America.
He was a founding partner in 1979 and later owner of Baltimore Therapeutic Equipment Co., which was associated with the Curtis Hand Center at Union Memorial Hospital.
Another founding partner was Dr. Raymond M. Curtis, a pioneering hand surgeon who had founded the internationally known center that is named for him.
The equipment helped advance occupational therapy in general, and hand therapy specifically, offering therapeutic techniques to recovering patients that kept pace with Dr. Curtis' groundbreaking micro-surgical techniques.
Mr. Doub sold the company in 2004 and retired.
He was a member of the Baltimore Rugby Club, where he continued playing the sport until he was 40.
He was the longest-serving trustee at McDonogh, family members said.
Mr. Doub enjoyed spending summers in Annapolis, where he sailed the Chesapeake Bay aboard the Tiger Stripes, his 40-foot-long Tiara powerboat. He spent winters in Naples, Fla., where he liked to play golf with his many Princeton and Baltimore friends who also wintered there.
"In his 58 years as a Princeton alumnus, he never once missed the annual reunion, where he continued to enjoy the company of classmates and teammates," said a son, Brian C. Doub of Sherwood Forest.
He was an avid reader.
Mr. Doub was a member of the Baltimore Country Club and Center Club.
"One of his most treasured invitations was to attend the Bohemian Club in the redwood groves of California," his son said.
Services are private.
In addition to his son, Mr. Doub is survived by his wife of 58 years, the former Rita Johnson; two other sons, John Doub of Washington and Bruce Doub of Richmond, Va.; and eight grandchildren.