Founder
Robert W. Hendra
1938 - 2022
Robert Wayne Hendra, fondly known as Bob, was born in Sacramento, California in1938. On his father's side his ancestors were from Cornwall, England.
As a child Bob was twiddling with the tuner on the family radio and came upon a piece of opera being played, he stood transfixed and from that day on his obsession with all things operatic began.
Bob studied at the University of Oregon and then the State University of California for his Masters in Social Work before moving to England in the 1960s, where he worked as an addiction counsellor in West London before retiring to Cornwall in 2009 until passing away in 2022.
He loved going to the opera and theatre and spent a lot of his leisure time collecting opera recordings.
His original collection of early and rare recordings were donated to the University of York under the Hendra Archive in 2009.
In the same year Bob was inspired to found The Robert W. Hendra Charitable Trust with the aim to provide financial assistance to students who have shown significant talent in opera singing or classical music.