Robert Franklin Rapelye, 92, died May 8 at the Bethany Home in Providence, RI. Born in New York City, he was the son of the late Foster Rapelye and Elizabeth (Ernst). A graduate of the Class of 1941 at Brown University, he spent part of his undergraduate years acting in a featured documentary film, “The Ramparts We Watched,” depicting events during the period 1914-1918.  After Brown, he completed Officer Candidate School at Yale University before joining the 9th Air Force as a photo reconnaissance interpreter. His squadron flew missions for the D-Day invasion 1944 as well as for General Patton’s 3rd Army for the duration of World War II. A member of the New York Holland Society, Mr. Rapelye was a direct descendant of Joris Jansen Rapelye, one of the original settlers of the Dutch colony in America, New Amsterdam.  He held a deep appreciation for art, music and history and enjoyed sports, in particular, football, golf and tennis. His love of tennis led him to play in the U.S. National Tennis Championships as a junior at Forest Hills. Throughout his career, Mr. Rapelye dealt with all aspects of photography, owning a commercial studio in Providence, photographing in Europe for foreign language texts, and teaching for several years at Rochester Institute of Technology. His non-commercial work was published and distributed nationally by a California fine arts publisher. He was an exhibiting artist and member of the Providence Art Club and a member of the Duxbury Yacht Club. His family was the second of four generations to summer in Duxbury.

Mr. Rapelye was the husband of the late Ruth Frances “Rufus” (Young) for 65 years. He leaves his son Peter Rapelye and his wife Janet Lavin Rapelye of Duxbury and Princeton, NJ; his daughters, Nancy Godfray and her husband Thomas Godfray of Rumford, RI, and Sally Briggs and her husband Scott Briggs of Sebastopol, Calif.; eight grandchildren and six great grandchildren. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to Brown University.