Robert Mackin Carroll

Robert Mackin “Bobby” Carroll Jr. Beloved brother, fun-loving uncle, and wicked funny person Robert Mackin “Bobby” Carroll Jr. passed away on August 19, 2026, in Dorchester, Massachusetts. He was 75 years old. 

Bobby was born on June 24, 1951 in Bethesda, Maryland, the son of Captain Robert Mackin Carroll and Dorothy Mulhern Carroll. He was the fourth of five children. His father’s naval career took the family from Hawaii to Virginia Beach to England, before the Carrolls finally settled in Jamaica Plain, where Bobby attended the Manning School, Nazareth, Saint Sebastian’s, and ultimately graduated from Wilbraham Academy. 

Bobby could talk to anyone and had a story about everything. He moved to Los Angeles as a young man, where he charmed the stars as a limousine driver, mastered the art of bartending, and developed his signature way of saying “Santa Monica.” He eventually opened his own bar, naming it the Moss Hill Grill in honor of the Jamaica Plain street where he grew up. Bobby then took his talents back to Boston and became a local institution behind the bar at the Rattlesnake on Boylston Street, slinging strong drinks, telling tall tales, and eventually earning the prestigious honor of Boston Magazine’s “Bartender of the Year.” You never forgot meeting Bobby, whether you spent an hour on one of his stools or a few minutes in the back of his cab. 

Bobby had an irrepressible sense of humor and encyclopedic knowledge of Boston sports. He could tell you the batting average of any Red Sox player for the last 40 years and make his many nieces, nephews, and sixteen great-nieces and nephews laugh with a silly joke or a mischievous trick. He was the life of every party, and his many friends will be telling their own stories about him for the rest of their lives. He never took himself too seriously, and he never surrendered his unique perspective on the world. 

Bobby is survived by his sisters, Susan Carroll Lemkau and Janet Carroll Donelan; his brothers, Frederick Carroll and Richard Carroll; their wives, Elizabeth and Brigitte Carroll; the rest of his devoted family; and half a pack of Marlboro Red 100s. He will be dearly missed and impossible to forget. 

Family and friends are invited to celebrate Bobby’s life at noon on Friday, August 28, 2026, at the Hatherly Country Club in Scituate, Massachusetts.