Robert Harwood, 67, Bunkie

Funeral services for Robert Henry Frith Harwood will be Tuesday, March 2, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. in the Calvary Episcopal Church 401 S. Lexington Ave. - BunkieLA 71322 with Rev. Pete Smith officiating. Inurnment in the Harwood family plot in Pythian Cemetery will be at a later date under the direction of Melancon Funeral Home, Bunkie.
The family requests that visitation be observed at Frithland Plantantion- 904 Pershing Hwy / LA 29 S – Bunkie, LA 71322- on Monday, March 1, 2021 from 4:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m..
Frith, age 67, of Bunkie, passed away at his residence, L’Esperance, on Thursday, February 25, 2021.
Frith was born on April 11, 1953 in Virginia Beach, Virginia to Robert Hewett Harwood, Jr. and Zenobia “Puds” Frith Pratt Harwood. He grew up as a “Navy junior”, attending over ten schools in eight years!! He graduated from Lee High School [now Lee Magnet High] in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1971. During 1972-1976, he served as an electronics specialist with the Navy in Tennessee, Florida, Italy, and Iceland. Later he served as an electronics manager with a musical band that performed in various locations in the United States. In the early 1980s, he moved to Bunkie to assist his parents with Frithland Plantation business and farm activities, and in 1986, he graduated from Louisiana State University in Alexandria with a BS degree in General Business Administration.
Pursuing his passion for theater arts, he and his wife Nancy moved to New York City, and in 1991 he graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City with an AOS degree in the Professional Actor Training Program. He put his talents to work when he moved back to Louisiana as he combined his business and theater background by acting in and directing numerous theater productions in central Louisiana, and to many became known as "Mr. Frith." And for several years, he managed, directed and acted in Les Theatre Des Bon Temps “Fox Theater” in Marksville City Park Players in Alexandia
In the late 1990s, and particularly after his father died in 2004, he took over family business operations as farm manager and Vice President of Frithland Plantation. Because of his work in the construction industry, he coordinated the renovation of L’Esperance [where he and his wife lived], both family Flake rental houses, and Calvary Episcopal Church in Bunkie. He continued doing much of this work until he died. He was a furniture craftsman as well as a carpenter.
Frith lived in Bunkie for over 40 years and was a dedicated member of Calvary Episcopal Church. Everyone knew him and everyone loved him. He will be fondly remembered by his Bunkie friends and their families, his theater arts family, his hunting and golfing buddies, and all those had regular contact with him over many years. And, he will be thought of often by his immediate family and his many cousins who survive him.
Those that predeceased him include his parents Robert Hewett Harwood, Jr. and Zenobia Frith Pratt Harwood, his sister, Ann Frith Harwood, his step-mother Harriet Bennett Reed Harwood.
He is survived by his wife of thirty-eight years, Nancy Jane Albright Harwood of Bunkie;; his son, Robert Jeremy Todd Harwood of Bunkie; his two sisters, Mary Buie Harwood of Richmond, Virginia and Evelyn Hope Harwood Liebke and her husband Bill of Bunkie, and their children Ashley Wynne Liebke Boggs, Dabne Raine Liebke Whitemore, and their children Jackson Buie Whitemore, Ava Hope Boggs, and Tyler Blake Boggs who live in Bunkie and his first cousins William Lafayette Wade Cole of the Big Island, Hawaii, Evelyn Hope Cole Ortman of Truckee, California, and Mary Ann Harwood of Chatham, Massachusetts; and by his step-brothers Stanley Martin Reed of Texas and David Herman Reed of Lafayette, Louisiana.