In memoriam: Adventurist Robert Corya dies at 93

FFRF Member Robert Steele Corya, 93, died March 5.

He was born June 29, 1929, in Long Beach, Calif.  He attended Butler University and then earned a BA degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, where he became a dormitory counselor. 

He met his first wife, Betty, at Indiana University, and was married to her from 1958 to 1981. 

As a journalist, Robert was employed at the Hagerstown (Indiana) Exponent, Richmond (Indiana) Palladium-Item, United Press International, and the Indianapolis News. He worked at Polar Ice Co., Model Ice Cream Co., Wm H Block Co, and Eli Lilly and Company during the summers. 

While at the Indianapolis News, he was named Headline Writer of the Year in 1961 and was honored by the Indiana State Medical Association in 1967 for excellence in writing a series on mental health facilities in corporations. He served during the Korean War aboard the USS Monongahela, a tanker. 

In 1978, Robert was elected president of the Society of American Business and Economic Writers. After retiring from the News (where he was the business editor) in 1985, Robert backpacked much of the Appalachian Trail, solo canoed the entire Wabash River, skied 25 mountains in North America with the Indianapolis Ski Club, and drove over a million accident-free miles, including driving twice to and from Alaska. 

He was an avid bicyclist, riding in dozens of organized rides and races. He was a member of the Central Indiana Bicycling Association and the Indianapolis Hiking Club, walking more than 10,200 miles. 

Robert’s family and close friends remember his pragmatism, great sense of humor, compassion for those less fortunate than he, eternal sense of optimism, and love of nature and the great outdoors.