Robert S. "Bob" Raines

Bob Raines died peacefully at his home in Ambler, Pennsylvania, on 9 October 2026, surrounded by his family. He was 75. His wife, Christine, told The Reporter that friends and neighbours had been extremely supportive during his illness over the past year. No specific cause of death was made public.

His death was announced in an obituary through the Shaeff-Myers Funeral Home and reported on 13 October 2026 by The Reporter, one of the newspapers he once worked for, which gathered tributes from former colleagues. He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Ledlie, and survived by his wife, his son Evan and daughter-in-law Emily, a granddaughter, and nieces, nephews and in-laws.

A memorial service was planned for the morning of Friday, 30 October 2026, at Calvary United Methodist Church in Ambler. The family asked that memorial donations be made to Wissahickon Trails in place of flowers.

Robert S. Raines was born in Philadelphia on 4 April 1951, the son of Herbert S. Raines and Margaret Pauline Swartz. He grew up in the Oak Lane section of the city, where he had a beloved childhood springer spaniel named Cricket.

He studied English at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree. His family later wrote that he was a gifted storyteller with a lifelong passion for journalism and photography, interests that shaped the rest of his working life.

Raines joined the Montgomery Publishing Company in 1974 and stayed for 44 years, until his retirement in 2018. The company, a group of community newspapers in the Philadelphia suburbs, was known over the years as Montgomery Newspapers and Montgomery Media and later became part of Digital First Media. His photographs appeared in the Ambler Gazette, the Times Herald, the Glenside News, the Public Spirit and other titles.

He worked in both film and digital photography and covered the full range of local news: community celebrations and parades, natural disasters, political rallies, performances and sporting events. His obituary notes that his assignments brought him face to face with four sitting U.S. presidents, and that he had a particular talent for sports photography, capturing the energy and drama of a game in a single frame. Families often found their children pictured in the Gazette at school activities, scouting events and other community occasions.

Raines won multiple awards, often taking first place, in yearly competitions hosted by the Pennsylvania Newspapers Association, the Philadelphia Press Association and Suburban Newspapers of America. In a 2009 profile, when the Ambler Gazette was chosen to receive an Upper Dublin community medal, he said people trusted him because he knew the area and its history: "You have to know your turf and know your people. It's like talking to a friend."

Former colleagues described a photographer who was always willing to teach. Bill Fraser, who later worked at the Bucks County Courier Times, said he learned from Raines as a young staff photographer, and Joan Anton, who worked with him in the 1980s, said he taught her a great deal. Scott Roman, who worked with him for 20 years, said Raines was offered jobs at daily papers but preferred his community work.

Raines lived in Ambler, Pennsylvania, and in 2009 described the town as the place where he had his roots, his house and his family. He was married to Christine Raines, and they had a son, Evan.

Outside photography he loved animals, sharing his home over the years with dogs named Baby and Hazel and a cat named Buzz. He enjoyed reading, boating, hiking and holidays in the Adirondacks. A natural problem-solver, he became a skilled woodworker, building furniture and renovating his home, and he had a deep interest in genealogy, researching family trees for his own relatives and for others. His nieces called him Uncle Cookie because of his many Cookie Monster impressions.

For more than four decades Raines was the visual record of daily life in Ambler and the surrounding townships, and many of his photographs ended up in family scrapbooks. Former news editor Cynthia Marone wrote that his photos were "the type that families put in scrapbooks," and former executive editor Tina Hennessey said his deep knowledge of the area came through in his work.

His family's obituary said he would be remembered for his keen eye, his curiosity about the world and his ability to preserve meaningful moments for others, leaving a lasting visual record of the people and communities he served.