Robert Dudley Cabe

Robert Dudley Cabe, of Little Rock, a lawyer and health-insurance executive who gave much of his life to the betterment of education in Arkansas and other civic endeavors, died May 14, at a Little Rock hospital. He was 78. He had battled complications from cancer for several years. Cabe was born June 25, 1942, at Little Rock, to Robert Lewis Cabe and Dorris Saugey Cabe, but he was reared at Benton, where he graduated from high school. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Hendrix College, an institution for which he would have a lifetime ardor and affiliation, and then a bachelor of laws degree from Duke University at Durham, N.C. He later received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Hendrix. He joined the blue-chip law firm of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings in 1966, and became a partner and chair of its labor-law division. Although much of his practice was on behalf of business employers, he had a sympathy for laboring litigants. He left the firm in 1981 and opened Allen, Cabe & Lester with two other lawyers. In 1988, he became vice president and general counsel of Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, later becoming executive vice president for legal, governmental relations, and communication services. He retired in 2005. In court, Cabe was the same as he was in his personal life, generous, deferential, dignified, and insistent upon truthfulness. His passion for education did not begin with the birth of his two children, daughter, Meredith and son, Matthew, but they enhanced it: PTA, search committees for the superintendent of schools, and school elections. He was on the Board of Trustees of Hendrix College, which he served as chairman, and took a great interest in the founding and operation of the Arkansas School for the Gifted at Hendrix. He served on the state Board of Higher Education in the 1980s under appointment by his friend Governor Bill Clinton, after the legislature passed a law greatly magnifying the agency's power to review and affect the academic programs at each of the publicly supported colleges and universities. He chaired the Quality Higher Education Study Committee. In 1973, he, Chris Barrier, Walter Nunn, and Chuck Chappell, formed a book club. Since then, it has met monthly for 48 years. He held a diverse and lengthy series of leadership positions in organizations that exist for public service and community betterment, serving on the boards of directors of LifeQuest of Arkansas (chair); Blue and You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas (chair); Arkansas Repertory Theatre Foundation; National Conference for Community Justice, from which he received its Humanitarian Award; Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Society Foundation (chair); Arkansas Repertory Theatre (chair); Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation (chair); Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Society (chair); and the Arkansas Museum of Science and History. He was unfailingly kind. He was especially generous with those he loved, who could count on a listening ear, a crossword puzzle clue, a lap for a tired dog, a Girl Scout cookie order, or a piece of his Shipley's bear claw. He loved fishing, golfing, and a well-made martini. He was a lifelong, committed liberal Democrat, and he was known occasionally to disapprove of poor grammar and overly long obituaries. Survivors are his wife, Julie McDonald Cabe; children Meredith Cabe (Peter Hutchins) of Silver Spring, Maryland, and Matthew Cabe (Sarah Hantz) of Fayetteville; grandchildren Eva, Lila, and Mae Hutchins; and an assortment of granddogs. A memorial reception will be held at a later date, with details to be posted on RuebelFuneralHome.com. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages those who wish to make donations to consider Hendrix College, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Society Foundation, the Arkansas Repertory Theatre Foundation, or LifeQuest of Arkansas. Arrangements are under the direction of RuebelFuneralHome.com