Robert Edward “Bob” Rentz, M.D., 96, of West Hartford, Connecticut, passed away peacefully on August 14, 2026, surrounded by his loving family. He spent his final week under hospice care, with his wife and children by his side.
Born in Hartford on September 4, 1929, to Edward and Wanda Rentz, he moved to West Hartford as a young child and never truly left. His parents had immigrated to the United States through Ellis Island as teenagers and gave everything they had so their children could be educated. Bob never forgot it. A child of the Depression who made the most of every opportunity this country offered, he remained deeply patriotic and eternally grateful for the life that became possible for him and his family.
He spoke often and fondly of his youth—of hand-built free-flight and control-line model planes, wooden skis and leather boots, raising pigeons, Boy Scouts, a carefully maintained BB gun and .22 rifle, tinkering with cars, and disassembling his father’s Buick Riviera engine into pieces, only to be told by his mother that it better be put back together before Dad got home. These were memories of a town and a way of life he never wanted to leave behind.
Bob graduated from Hall High School in 1947 and earned his B.Sc. from Trinity College in 1951. While at Trinity, he joined the Connecticut National Guard’s 43rd Infantry Division, rising to corporal. When the division was federalized, his commanding officer arranged for his discharge so he could attend medical school. He received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1955 and completed postgraduate training at Hartford Hospital, Yale, and the VA Hospital in West Haven. He then served on active duty as a captain in the United States Air Force Medical Corps from 1958 to 1961, including service on the staff of the 1605th USAF Hospital in the Azores from 1958 to 1960, followed by a year stateside at Turner AFB in Albany, Georgia. In all, his military service spanned nearly 12 years.
It was during his final residency at Hartford Hospital that he met Carol Ann Schofield, a head nurse in one of the surgical units. He married the love of his life on September 24, 1966, and for nearly sixty years they shared a life of deep love and devotion. After completing his residency in 1962, Bob opened a solo practice in general internal medicine on Farmington Avenue in West Hartford. He cared for generations of local families for 45 years. In his words, medicine was not an occupation but a calling, and he made house calls until the day he retired at 78—one of the last physicians in the area to do so. He also served on the West Hartford Board of Health and held senior staff privileges at Hartford Hospital. Unwaveringly dedicated to his patients and to the community he called home for nearly a century, he lived a life of quiet selflessness.
To the wider world he was Dr. Rentz. To his family he was Dad—a man of meticulous habits, exacting standards, and uncommon care for others. No bag, can, or box ever received fewer than two or three useful lives in his household, and no one-hour chore escaped a thorough three-hour planning session to ensure maximum efficiency. He prepared the family car for road trips with the precision of a pre-flight checklist, taught his children the correct sequence for starting an engine (with the mandatory pause between modes), and insisted that the wheels never be turned unless the car was already moving. He loved planes and airshows, cars and opera, jazz and skiing, rifle ranges and pond fishing, and the particular joy of building a fire with gusto. Family trips to ski in Vermont, hikes through the Connecticut foliage, Sunday dinners, and the sight of Dad in his red bathing suit on Cape Cod beaches are among the memories that still bring smiles to his family. His friendships complemented these family moments: the weekly Thursday dinners with the Arborio, Friend, and Livingston families, and the Manor Lane get-togethers with neighbors—the Larkins, McAndrew, Shima, Walker, and Welch clans.
In his final years, he left quiet trails of notes and observations for those who loved him. Shortly before he died, he wrote to his family and closed with words that now feel like a final gift:
“Memories are the only paradise from which we cannot be expelled.”
— Jean Paul (Johann Paul Friedrich Richter)
Bob is survived by his wife of nearly sixty years, Carol Schofield Rentz of West Hartford; his children, Diana of Walnut Grove, CA; Douglas and his wife Kori of Darien, CT, and their children Alexander, Ella, and Lachlan; and David and his wife Lisa of Charlotte, NC, and their children William and Benjamin. He was predeceased by his parents and brother Ronald, and outlived the friends and siblings of his youth.
He lived a life of steady purpose, rooted in place and devoted to others. The memories remain, and those who loved him are left with deep pride and lasting gratitude that he was ours.
