Robert "Bob" Sunley

Robert “Bob” Sunley was a student at Black Mountain College from 1936 to 1939. He came to the college from Oberlin College. At Black Mountain Sunley took a general curriculum including literature, writing and music. He also took part in drama productions and other activities.

He was elected Student Moderator and as such was a member of the Board of Fellows during the conflict that led to the resignation of John Andrew Rice, a college founder.

When he left Black Mountain, Sunley moved to New York City where he took odd jobs. He also worked in Boston for Porter Sargent, father of a Black Mountain student and publisher of a prestigious guide to private schools.

In Chicago he worked with his father who managed pension and profit-sharing plans and who published a series of independent newsletters on international events.

He served in the army during World War II, primarily as an intelligence officer in an Arkansas camp. He also studied Japanese at the University of Michigan. After the war Sunley returned to New York where he worked as an editor at Prentice-Hall and then as coeditor of Critique, a short-lived monthly journal for art criticism and reviews.

He and Leslie Katz, also a Black Mountain student, formed Touchstone Press, a small press which produced low-cost portfolios of art reproductions for museums and bookstores. Sunley obtained his B.A. degree at the New School of Social Research in New York and his M.A. in social work at Adelphi University.

He worked in several psychiatric clinics in New York and Long Island as a therapist and chief social worker and also maintained a private practice in psychotherapy and psychoanalysis after further training. He was Associate Director at Family Service Association of Nassau County, where he designed and directed a number of innovative human service programs. He also taught at universities, was a consultant, and wrote articles, books, and papers on social services.

He was author of Advocating Today: A Human Service Practioner’s Handbook (1983); Serving the Unemployed and their Families (1986); and Righting Wrongs: Advocacy Principles, Methods & Practice 2008). For twenty years before his death, he was companion to Elizabeth Pollet, a Black Mountain student.

Biography written by Mary Emma Harris for the Black Mountain College Project.

Relationships

Companion to fellow BMC student, Elizabeth Pollet

Black Mountain College Project

Mary Emma Harris interviewed Robert in 1997 and the transcript is available from Appalachian State University under The Mary Emma Harris and Black Mountain College Project, Inc. Oral History collection. Topics: Hearing about BMC – application and visit – mathematics with Ted Dreier – psychology with Bob Goldenson – theater productions with Robert Wunsch – Xanti SchawinskyDanse Macabre—John Rice’s writing seminar – William Zeuch and Commonwealth College – student moderator – suicides of Denis Rhodes and Porter – John Rice resignation and conflicts – literature with Joseph Martin – trip with Rice to Johnson City, Tennessee – Aldous Huxley/Gerald Heard visit – Dante Fiorello at BMC – comparison of BMC and Oberlin – type of student attracted to BMC – Hans Sachs visit – work program – Ernst Krenek visit – Roy’s bar – community meetings – post-BMC professional work – assessment of Black Mountain as educational institution – David Way at BMC