Robert Michael Otten passed away on April 19 at Inova Fairfax Hospital after a long illness. He was born in 1945 in Mineola, New York to the late Theodore and Mary Otten. He was a graduate of Chaminade High School in Mineola, NY, received his Bachelor\u2019s Degree from St. John\u2019s University, and his PhD. In English literature from the University of Notre Dame. He began his 53-year teaching and administrative career at La Lumiere School in Indiana, where he was proud to have taught Chief Justice John Roberts freshman English. He also taught and served as an administrator at Saint Anselm College in NH, Indiana University Fort Wayne, Assumption College in Ma., Indiana University Kokomo, and Marymount University in Arlington.<\/p>\n
He loved teaching, counseling students, coaching students who had academic difficulties, pioneering distance learning, tutoring high school students on college essay writing, and always encouraging students and colleagues with an optimism he carried throughout his life. He became a local Harry Potter expert for Washington media when his academic interests turned to children\u2019s literature. Although retired from full-time teaching, he continued to teach some courses and independent studies until last year.<\/p>\n
An avid Red Sox fan, he enjoyed coaching son Alex\u2019s Greater Manassas Baseball League teams, and watching baseball and UConn women\u2019s basketball games. In later years he found his spiritual home when attending Mass at the Benedictine Monastery in Bristow.<\/p>\n
He is survived by Lisa Sievel-Otten of Manassas, his wife of 38 years; son Liam (Carolyn) of University City, Mo.; daughter Rachel George (Jason) of Wilmington, NC; son Tim (Aida) of San Francisco, Ca. and their mother Elizabeth Delmonico (Neal); daughter Lindsay Meretten (Alex) of Reston; son Alex of Madrid, Spain; two granddaughters and two grandsons; brother Ted (Michael) of Yardley, Pa.; sister Christine Greco (Al) of St. Augustine, Fl.; sister Kathryn Aldrich of St. Augustine, Fl; and beloved brothers-in-law, sister-in-law, and nieces and nephew.<\/p>\n
Visitation at Olde Town Funeral Home, 9320 West St., will be on Thursday, April 27 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. A celebration of life will be held on Friday, April 28 at 11:00 a.m. at Saint Benedict Monastery, 9535 Linton Hall Road, Bristow, VA 20136\u00a0with internment at the Place of Peace Columbarium and reception to follow.<\/p>\n
Memorial contributions may be made to BEACON Adult Literacy, 9535 Linton Hall Road, Bristow, VA 20136.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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Robert Michael Otten passed away on April 19 at Inova Fairfax Hospital after a long illness. He was born in 1945 in Mineola, New York to the late Theodore and Mary Otten. He was a graduate of Chaminade High School in Mineola, NY, received his Bachelor\u2019s Degree from St. John\u2019s University, and his PhD. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/manassasfuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/manassasfuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/manassasfuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manassasfuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manassasfuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1696"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/manassasfuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1702,"href":"https:\/\/manassasfuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1696\/revisions\/1702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manassasfuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/manassasfuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manassasfuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/manassasfuneralhome.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}