Stefan Hyman Robock, 1915-2012
 
Stefan Hyman Robock was born in Redgranite, Wisconsin on July 31, 1915.  He died of natural causes in Bluffton, South Carolina at the age of 97 on August 1, 2012.
 
The son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, he was the first person in his family to graduate from a university.  But he did not just graduate from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1938 – he went on to Harvard University, where he received his M.A. in 1941 and Ph.D. in 1948, both in Economics.
 
From 1940 to 1954, he worked for the U.S. Government, including serving as an Air Intelligence Officer in the U.S. Navy in Washington, Brazil, Morocco, and Japan during World War II and a five-year term (1949-1954) as Chief Economist of the Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville.  He worked at the Midwest Research Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Committee for Economic Development in New York City before beginning his academic career in 1960, where he was one of the founders of the field of international business.  He served as Director of Indiana University’s International Business program from 1960-1967.  From 1967 to 1985, he was on the faculty of Columbia University, retiring as the R. D. Calkins Professor Emeritus of International Business at the Graduate School of Business.  He served in 1985 as Visiting Professor at China’s first management program (Beijing Management Institute) and in 1989 at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, China, teaching capitalism to Communists.  When no students showed up for his class one day, one finally came in and told him there was something more important happening that day in Tiananmen Square.  He was able to get on a plane to Tokyo that same day before the airport closed for an extended period.  In 1992, he was a visiting professor at the International Management Center, Budapest, Hungary.  He also has honorary degrees of Professor Honoris Causa, University of Recife (Brazil) in 1956 and MA (Hon.) ESTE, San Sebastian (Spain), 1974, and was honored by Columbia University by the establishment of a Stefan H. Robock Professorship in Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School.
 
In 1954, Dr. Robock began a series of foreign assignments and served for 2½ years as United Nations Economic Development Adviser for Northeast Brazil.  Many subsequent missions in Brazil resulted in a cumulative residence of about 5 years in Brazil.  Other overseas missions were undertaken for the UN, World Bank, Ford Foundation and the U.S. government in India, Bolivia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Liberia, Malawi and other countries.  He lectured for USIA in Iran, Afghanistan, Korea, India, Peru, Chile, Brunei and Thailand.
 
Dr. Robock was the author of 7 books and numerous articles on international business, regional development, nuclear power, international technology transfers, Japanese trading companies and a textbook, International Business & Multinational Enterprises.
 
Dr. Robock was a life-long Democrat and founding member of the Americans for Democratic Action.  In his one and only, and ultimately unsuccessful, political campaign, for State Assemblyman for Green Lake and Waushara Counties, Wisconsin, he ran in the Republican primary, as Democrats at that time would have had no chance of winning in the general election.  He was active in the Democratic Club of New York City, and strongly supported Barack Obama.  One of his main recent concerns was the re-election of Barack Obama.
 
His greatest passion was tennis, and he played several times a week until five years before his death.  He made sure all his children also learned.  His second greatest passion was the University of Wisconsin, as he felt that this great state university gave him the opportunity to get an education that allowed him to escape small-town life in rural Wisconsin, establish a successful career ,and see the world.  He passed on his love of travel to his family, too.  He was a member of the Bascom Hill Society of the University of Wisconsin, established a Stefan H. Robock Scholarship in the Department of Economics, and followed the Wisconsin football team his entire life.  In 1994 he attended the Rose Bowl with his son Alan and brother Leonard when Wisconsin played there for the first time in decades.
 
When Dr. Robock turned 85, he decided to celebrate by taking his extended family on a one-week vacation trip, and continued the tradition for eight years, allowing them to visit San Salvador, the Bahamas on two separate occasions, Greece, Hawaii, Wisconsin, Brazil, and Costa Rica, and take a cruise to Canada.  This generosity allowed the children as adults to spend quality time together with their families, making a lasting impression on all of them.
 
Stefan Robock is survived by his wife, Hanne Miree Robock; three children from his first marriage to Shirley Bernstein, Alan Robock and wife Sherri West of Manasquan, NJ, Jerry Robock and wife Stephanie Wexler-Robock of Yorktown Heights, NY, and Lisa Shaffer and husband Stephen Bartram of Encinitas, CA; niece Laura Hersh Salganik and husband William Salganik; grandchildren Zachary Robock, Maxwell Robock, Allison Shaffer, Brian West and wife Virginia West, Daniel West, Briana Bartram, Lauren Bartram, Emily Bartram; and great-grandson Daniel Gregory West.  
 
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Barack Obama for President Campaign or the Leonard I. and Stefan H. Robock Memorial Fund at the University of Wisconsin.  Memorials can be made payable to the UW Foundation-Robock Fund and mailed to US Bank Lockbox 78807, Milwaukee, WI  53278. This fund supportsthe Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, including an annual Robock Lecture.