Obituary: Robert W. Rycroft
On Sunday, May 2, 2021, a long-term faculty member of Institute for International Science and Technology Policy at the Elliott School of International Affairs, and core faculty of the homonym Masters program, passed away after a long-term illness. Bob Rycroft — a veteran of the Vietnam war who attended graduate school after his tour of duty in South-East Asia with the help of the GI Bill — was the person who called me up while I was serving my own tour in a NATO allied Navy back in late 1989 to announce the job opening at GW and to invite me to apply for it. What about all those good American economists? They were busy doing neoclassical economics, he said, less than ideal for understanding technological advancement and doing something meaningful about it. Coming with a combination of strong neoclassical background from New York University as a student of Boyan Jovanovic, Ishaq Nadiri, and Janusz Ordover and a strong exposure to the likes of Dick Nelson, Sydney Winter, Franco Malerba, and Luc Soete, but also the greatest mentor/teacher of all, Herbert Fusfeld, I understood completely what he said. I jumped on the next available plane.
Bob was the second regular faculty member — besides John Logsdon — of the Center for Science and Technology Policy (as it was called back then) that I found upon arrival, and I was the junior third. The team was made of a full professor (John), an associate professor (Bob), and an assistant professor (Nick). We were dealing with a great body of excellent students, many of who already possessed significant experience working in the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government.
Although finicky at times, Bob had a great heart and, if you got on his good side, was particularly generous with his time and advice. When I asked what type of students attend GW he advised me to first visit the student and then the faculty parking lots. Yeap, it was crystal clear!! When I asked where he was from, he said that he came up north from a land where the rivers are shallow and wide. I thought I knew geography and was deeply embarrassed to ask which place that was. He must have guessed it and continued: Oklahoma. He added that he had arrived at the nation’s capital intending to stay over just a short while. Yet, a few decades later he was still in DC and not exactly under coercion! I thought he was pulling my leg. Today I know he was dead serious.
Bob was famous for sitting at his desk talking to individual students for hours. They did want to talk with him! He was also famous for entering the first meeting of the cornerstone class that all three core inhouse faculty members gallantly co-taught in the late 1990s during the first internet boom and casually deflating students’ excitement by reminding them that the new spiffy thing called the internet run on energy from dirty coal!! Yes, that same most dirty fuel which powered the 1st industrial revolution in 18th century England was still powering up America’s fantastic inventions and technological achievements more than two centuries later! Would he get a kick today seeing the amazing appetite of the leading global superpower for that dirty thing at the cusp of the 4th industrial revolution featuring artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, synthetic biology, autonomous electric vehicles, and the internet of things?
Bob was our energy/environment specialist. He did not write much, but he produced some good stuff when he did. The one that got most attention was the book co-authored late in his career with his old PhD supervisor, Prof Don Kash, published at the end of the last century titled “The Complexity Challenge” (Jan 1999) (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Robert+Rycroft+and+Don+Kash&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss).
A great volume, I thought. Really. And not about energy or the environment. I wish all our students go back to read it because its thesis remains as true today as it was then. I was envious that I could not write that well. Then he told me that he could not write that well either.
Bob was also famous for his love of VW Beetles (VW bugs). He had a large picture of an old assembly line of the vehicles hung outside his office. If you got into friendly discussion with him he might have admitted being an aficionado since his early 20s. Traveling across the southern states for days on end. He still had a very old one in his possession after coming north, model 1962, black with original parts parked outside his door. The problem was that he was also driving that car to work, thus, occasionally missing class.
Bob and John were faculty members of the Political Science Department. My arrival at the CSTP changed the recipe somewhat. Bob developed dementia towards the end of his career. It was a problem for us all. He retired as a full professor of political science and international affairs. God bless his heart.
Nick Vonortas
