Robert H. Strotz

Strotz was born in Aurora, Illinois. Strotz entered Duke University when he was 16. His father died when Strotz was a sophomore at Duke and he transferred to the University of Chicago to be closer to his family. Strotz earned his B.A. in economics at University of Chicago in 1942.[3] During World War II Strotz served for three years in a U.S. Army Air Force Signal Corps intelligence unit of radio-equipped vans listening to and triangulating on German pilots. Upon Germany's defeat, Strotz served a brief stint as an economist-statistician in Berlin where he "estimated necessary food imports to feed the German population".[3]

In 1945 Strotz returned to the University of Chicago as a graduate student in economics. He supported himself by teaching economics courses to returning G.I.'s for the University of Illinois at Navy Pier. In 1947 Strotz joined Northwestern University's economics department as an instructor while pursuing his Ph.D. at University of Chicago. He earned his Ph.D. at University of Chicago in 1951 for his dissertation on welfare economics under future Nobel Prize–winning economist Tjalling Koopmans.[1]

In 1955 - 1956 Strotz, whose specialty was econometrics, studied at major centers of econometric research in the Netherlands, England, and Sweden on a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. He was a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1958 and 1959.

Outside of his university career, Strotz was an editor of Econometrica, International Economic Review, and Economic Analysis.[2] He also served as chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago as well as director of six publicly traded companies including USG Corporation and the National Merit Scholarship Program.[3]

Strotz died in a nursing home in Deerfield, Illinois, on November 9, 1994. He had four daughters, one son, and thirteen grandchildren.[2]