Robert I. Slate Dies at age 87

Robert "Bob" I. Slate, owner of the Bob Slate Stationer store and a Harvard Square icon for more than 60 years, died at his Woburn home September 5. He was 87.

Slate died because of kidney failure, his family said.

Slate, a former president of the Harvard Square Business Association and the Boston Stationer's Association, had also served as past district governor for the National Stationers and Office Supply Association.

Slate was born in North Tarrytown, N.Y. and raised in Bernardston, Mass., where he attended the oneroom Baldmount School schoolhouse. He later attended the Powers Institute High School and Clark University, from which he graduated in 1929.

Slate had served as a member of the board of directors for the Cambridge Rotary Club, which elected him an Honorary Paul Harris Fellow in 1989.

Slate was well-known in Cambridge for his Yankee thrift and unique, dry wit. He often ate lunch at Bartley's Burger Cottage on Mass. Ave., where he joked with friends about who could run the most thrifty business.

"We made it a point to have lunch together as often as we could. We would try to have lunch almost every day," said Ben Olken, owner of the old Bicycle Exchange and Slate's longtime friend. "We often met for coffee in the morning at Bartley's and we'd toss coin to see who had to pay. It was a little game."

Through work at his parent's dairy and produce farm, Slate honed his entrepreneurial skills at an early age. He delivered butter and eggs by horse and buggy for his mother. And later at Clark, he financed his college education by working as a cook at a local greasy spoon.

As the Depression crescendoed in the early and mid 1930's Slate, with only $300, opened "University Stationery" on North Harvard St. in Allston. In the 1940's he moved the business to a grey concrete-block building on Holyoke St.

He later met Victor Harnish, a Law School student who owned a laundry business at 1284 Mass. Ave. When Harnish graduated, Slate took over the business and ran it until 1955.

In 1950, Phillip's Bookstore, next door at 1288 Mass. Ave., went out of business, and Slate moved his stationery store into the more spacious location. Bob Slate Stationer currently operates in that same space.

Slate and his family later opened two other Bob Slate Stationer stores, one at 1975 Mass. Ave. in Porter Square and another at 63 Church St. in Harvard Square. Both are still in business.

"He started his store with a small amount of money loaned to him by his mother, worked long hours," Olken said. "He was thrifty but not stingy, he gave when necessary but didn't throw it around. He just came through all of the time. And it worked out."

Slate is survived by his wife, Jocylin; two children, Justin and Mallory; and four grandchildren, Bjorn, Ursula, Jessica and Jonathan.

A funeral was held last Wednesday at the Graham Funeral Home in Woburn, Mass, with a mass following at St. Charles Church. Internment took place in the Center Cemetery in Bernardston.