Strotz, Robert H. (Robert Henry)

Biography

Robert Strotz was born September 26, 1922 in Aurora, Illinois. He served as Northwestern's thirteenth president. An Illinois native, Robert Henry Strotz spent two years at Duke University before completing his Bachelor's degree in economics at the University of Chicago in 1942. He then served three years in army intelligence during World War II, including a period as an economist-statistician in Berlin. In Europe for a time following the war, he studied at major centers of econometric research in the Netherlands, England and Sweden on a Rockefeller Foundation grant. He returned to the University of Chicago for his Ph.D., after which he taught for a time at the University of Illinois at Chicago-Navy Pier. Strotz first joined the Northwestern economics department as an instructor in 1947, and rose to a professorship by 1958. Within the department he specialized in economic theory and econometrics. From 1966 to 1970 he served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. It was from this role that he ascended to the presidency following J. Roscoe Miller's transition to Chancellor.

In addition to his service to the University, Strotz was involved in numerous outside publications, acting as editor of Econometrica and Contributions to Economics Analysis, associate editor of the International Economic Review, and special editor of the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. He also was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, a director of six publicly traded companies in diverse industries and sat on the board of directors of the National Merit Scholarship fund. Strotz decided to retire at age 61, but followed in Miller's footsteps, continuing on as Chancellor until 1990. He died four years later at age 72 after a long illness.

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