Robert Alan Schwartz

Robert Alan (“Bob”) Schwartz, of Gray, Georgia, passed away at home on January 3, 2025.  He was 69. Services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, January 10, 2025, at Hart’s Mortuary, Jones County Chapel.  The family will greet friends one hour prior to the service.

Bob was born on September 20, 1955, in Newark, New Jersey, to Dr. Walter Schwartz and Beatrice Gottlieb Schwartz.   He was a 1974 graduate of Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School. Subsequently, he studied photojournalism at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and then attended Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, where he studied photography and criminal justice.  From 1977 to 1981 he saved lives in emergency medical services in Rochester, attaining his Advanced Paramedic certification in 1980.

In 1981, Bob opted for less snow and moved south to Georgia.  He joined the Macon, Georgia, Police Department in 1981 and achieved his Georgia P.O.S.T. certification in 1982.  He worked as a patrol officer and as an investigator with both the Macon Police Department Vice and Intelligence Unit and the Macon-Bibb County Drug and Vice Unit.  He was best known and remembered, however, as a member of the Macon Police K9 Unit, where he trained and handled four different full-service police dogs – Bubba, Bear, Shelby, and Riggs – and ultimately served as the K9 Unit Supervisor from 1993 through 2002.  While serving in these ways, he still found time to complete his criminal justice degree at Bernau University in Gainesville, Georgia in 1987, and obtain his J.D. at Atlanta Law School in 1991.  He was awarded Officer of the Year by both the Shield Club of Macon - Bibb County (1986) and the Macon - Bibb County International Exchange Club (1988).

Bob left the Macon Police Department in 2002 as a Sergeant, when he was recruited to be the Assistant Administrator for the Bibb County Drug Court.  In that capacity, he continued to make a difference in the community, one life at a time, until his retirement in 2021, having devoted 40 years to public service.

Bob was married to his wife Kimberly (Shumate) Schwartz in 1996, with Best Dog Shelby in attendance.  They became the proud parents of Caitlin Beatrice Schwartz in 1998.  Bob loved photography, especially film cameras, as well as old rock, jazz, and “classical” music (preferably played on vintage stereo equipment), movies, and television.  He was active in the Jones County Republican Party and had a passion for old trucks, firearms and knives, scouting for treasures in scrapyards and pawnshops, and of course, his dogs, who continued to be his constant companions and dear friends through his entire life.  Recently, he had even been able to admit to having a cat.

Bob is survived by his wife Kimberly and his daughter Caitlin, both of Gray, Georgia; his brother Norman Schwartz (Lynne) of Kendall Park, New Jersey; step-mother Lois Schwartz of Vero Beach, Florida; sister-in-law Karin Dreixler of Lantana, Florida; and many loving cousins, nieces, and nephews, as well as by dogs Arrow, Casey, Maggie, Ty, and Gypsy, and cats Circe, Junior, Jr., Loki, and Hobbs.

The family requests that those wishing to honor Bob’s memory with a memorial gift may do so with a donation to the Georgia Police K9 Foundation ( gapolicek9foundation.org ) or to PAWS Humane in Columbus, Georgia ( pawshumane.org ), and respectfully asks that any such gifts be designated as in memoriam for Bob Schwartz, so that the family may properly acknowledge them.

Harts Mortuary and Cremation Center has the arrangements.