Robert Sagen Kime was born in Salem, Virginia on May 19, 1894. He received his A.B. degree from Roanoke College in 1914 and earned his LL.B. degree in 1916 from Washington and Lee Law School in a scant two years.
He began the practice of law with his father and was the senior partner in the law firm of Kime, Jolly, and Clemens. He was an attorney for the Salem municipal government for over 40 years. He was a brilliant, tough-as-leather attorney who helped shape Salem for more than five decades. Kime was considered one of the outstanding lawyers of the Commonwealth by his peers. He was a fearless bulldog in the courtroom and a physical and metal phenomenon well into his eighties.
From 1926 to 1981 he served the Salem Town Council as its official legal counsel, viewing his role as that of the preventer whose job was to keep the group out of trouble and out of litigation. He took over his father's duties as third Secretary of Roanoke College in 1931, another job he filled for nearly 50 years before stepping down in 1980.
Kime was an avid outdoorsman who nearly became a forest ranger, and at 83 admitted he still had "never gotten used to working in an office." Kime prided himself on being the only living charter member of the Salem Kiwanis Club and Post 19 of the American Legion. He was a workaholic who never really retired, and went to his office routinely until the day before his death.
R. Sagen Kime was pragmatic in his belief that valley consolidation would benefit the whole are. A widower with three living daughters, Kime died May 4, 1983 at the age of 88. Kime received the Roanoke College Medal in 1968 for loyal service to his Alma Mater as an alumnus and as secretary of the Board of Trustees. In 1975 he was awarded the honorary Doctor of Laws degree by Roanoke College.
Robert Sagen Kime received the Roanoke College Medal in 1968.