Remembering Robert A. Longman

Robert Albert Longman was born in Baldwin, New York on December 4, 1929. He was president of his class throughout high school, was class valedictorian, and achieved varsity letters in baseball, wrestling, and soccer. 

He hit a triple off the center field fence in Ebbets Field at age 15 and wrestled for the Baldwin team that beat Mepham High School after 100 consecutive wins. He was a member of the Yale College Class of 1951.

He had a four-year scholarship, majored in English, history, and political science, and wrestled for Yale for four years. He worked 3 years in a bookstore during his studies at Columbia Law School, from which he graduated in 1954.

He married Janice Taylor in 1952. Longman served in the U.S. Army Security Agency for two years following law school. He joined the law firm Breed, Abbott & Morgan in 1955. He practiced antitrust law with Kendall B. Debevoise and Robert Bicks and with Bicks wrote a brief in the United States Supreme Court in which the court reversed a grant of writ of certiorari as improvidently granted. Together with Charles H. Tuttle, he won a labor law case in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He argued in the New York Court of Appeals. Longman joined Celanese Corporation as an attorney in 1961.

In 1966, Celanese paid for his education in the Harvard University program for Management Development. He ran the Law Department from 1967 to 1972 under the direction of the General Counsel and handled many business transactions in France and Italy. 

In 1972, he became Vice President-General Counsel of Hoechst-Celanese Corporation through 1989. He was a partner at Mudge Rose Guthrie Alexander & Ferdon from 1989 to 1995, where he handled many antitrust matters for Nintendo. He was a partner at Kasowitz Benson

Torres 1995-2007, and then became Of Counsel. Longman was Chairman of the New York State Bar Antitrust Law Section in 1975; and was a member of the BNA Antitrust Advisory Board 1977-2016. He was Chair of the 45th Reunion Committee for the Yale Class of 1951 and ran several reunions in New York City.

Longman is survived by his devoted, wonderful wife, Karlene ChinQuee Longman, MD, a graduate of Brown College and Stony Brook Medical School, who he married in 1996, and by his sons Mike, Bill, his wife Lisa, and Matt, his sister Beverly Carlson, his mother-in-law Thelma Johnson, brother-in-law Harold Irons and wife Yori, grandchildren Nick, Julie, and Ben. 

He credited his longevity to Karlene’s loving, tender care. 

A memorial will be held at the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Parlor at 1076 Madison Ave, New York from 12 – 4 pm.  A service will be followed by a celebration of Bob’s life and love of music.