On Sunday, May 2, 2021, Professor Emeritus Robert Rycroft, a long-term faculty member of the 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. Colleagues of Dr. Rycroft share their memories below.
Nick Vonortas:
The long and the sort of it is that 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 the Greek Navy back in late 1989 to announce the job opening at GW and to invite me to apply for it. He 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: one full prof (John), one associate prof (Bob), and one assistant prof (Nick).
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!!
He was our energy/environment specialist. He did not write a lot of articles, but those he did publish, were really good. The one that got the most attention was the book co-authored late in his career with his old Ph.D. supervisor Prof Don Kash, titled “The Complexity Challenge” (Jan 1999). I thought it was a great volume and was envious that I could not write that well. Then he told me that he could not write well either. Bob was characteristically unselfish and set us all at ease with our own shortcomings.
He was famous for sitting in his office talking to individual students for hours. He was also famous for entering the first meeting of our cornerstone course in the late 1990s during the first Internet boom and casually deflating students’ excitement by reminding them that the spiffy thing called the Internet runs on energy from dirty coal!
When I asked where he was from, he said he came 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.
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, and if you got into friendly discussion with him he might have told you that he was an aficionado. He had a very old one, black (model 1962) 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 Logsdon were faculty members of the Political Science Department. My arrival at the CSTP as a member of the Economics Department changed the recipe.
John Logsdon:
Nick Vonortas has captured Bob Rycroft very well. I do not have a whole lot to add. Bob came to GW in 1981 to join us as faculty members of the science and technology program. Over the following years, he was a dedicated teacher and a valued mentor to a number of students. He was a voracious reader of the academic and policy literature, and that was reflected in his teaching. His experience in Viet Nam colored his personality; he was rather skeptical of authority, a useful perspective for someone based a few blocks from the White House. Bob was a good colleague and helped make our program the training ground for several generations of public servants.
Henry Hertzfeld:
I came to CISTP in 1992 in the middle of my career with both prior government and consulting experience. Bob was, as Nick and John have described, a steady and knowledgeable source of help and technical expertise on science and technology policy. We all relied on his perspectives and found them invaluable. As a friend as well, we traded stories about many things, ranging from owning VW bugs (I once had one but never developed the love for it that he did), to dealing with the GW bureaucracy. And, having an office right next to his, I was both inspired and awed by the time and attention he gave to our students and their career interests. He genuinely cared for them and I would see so many of our students come back in later years for his advice and support.
Unfortunately, he developed dementia towards the end of his career at the CISTP. It was a problem for us all and we tried as much as we could to him through the early years of his illness so that he could continue to teach and advise students. He didn’t quit and kept doing what he could do well until it was no longer possible. God bless his heart.
Dr. Vonortas you mentioned Bob Rycroft’s love of VW Beatles but failed to mention that the VW Beatle was a key example used by Rycroft and Kash to explain their ideas about the increasing complexification of technology and manufacturing. Rycroft and Kash noted that it was not unreasonable to assume that one human could fully understand the technology (hydraulics, vulcanization, smelting, turning hydrocarbons into plastics) and manufacturing requited to produce a VW Beatle. But it was simply impossible to believe that one person could understand all of the technology and manufacturing embodied in a more modern automobile that contained integrated circuits, airbags, GPS along with all the other technologies that were in the VW Beatle. Rycroft and Kash noted that this stitching together of many different existing technologies (and their underlying manufacturing bases) was a hallmark of complexity and that industrial policy writ large needed to understand this shift in the world. I loved having Bob as a teacher and I was fortunate to know Don Kash as well as another colleague of theirs Jack White who I worked with for many years at one of the national laboratories. Rest in Peace, Bob
I took two course in environmental policy from Bob in the early 1990s. He was an exceptional teacher with a deep knowledge of his field, and an engaging lecturer. Bob was also very friendly and accessible, and lacked even the slightest academic pretension. It was a privilege being one of his students.
I’d like to share one fond memory of class with Bob Rycroft when I was in my first semester of grad school. Bob had assigned some readings about “appropriate technology” (i.e., developing nations couldn’t handle cutting edge technologies and therefore developed nations could pass on to them technologies and the knowhow that they had exhausted decades earlier). [To be fair, that is a really prejudiced view of “appropriate technology.” Mea culpa.] Little did Bob know that myself and one other student in the class were recently returned Peace Corps Volunteers. As soon as Bob started the discussion in class, me and the other returned Peace Corps Volunteer started arguing in the strongest terms against the entire concept of “appropriate technology” as it undervalued the intelligence and skills of more than ¾ of humanity. Bob just kept engaging the two of us in this lively debate while the rest of the class sat back and watched the show. After 90 minutes of this, Bob dismissed the class. He called the two of us up to the front before we were able to storm out with our righteous indignation. We figured we were in trouble for breaking some grad school rule of arguing too forcefully with the professor. When we got to the front of the room, Bob’s face lit up and he said “Thanks guys! That was great!” The two of us were completely dumb struck by his response to our 90-minute attack on the readings he has assigned. Bob explained that we had made his day, his week, his semester by actually reading the material so carefully and reading other materials that he hadn’t assigned just so we could argue with him. He said that his greatest joy was teaching and there was nothing better than teaching such highly motivated students. For me, this was an incredible introduction to grad school and my career as a scientist and journal editor. Bob taught me that to really understand someone else’s work to the point where you can discuss / argue with them in detail is a sign of how important you view that person’s research.
Bob had a kind heart, good soul, and skepticism born I suspect of his experience in Vietnam — and laps around the Beltway. Thank you for the touching remembrances. — Jim Wilson, STPP MA 1991
Dr. Rycroft’s light and fun demeanor was a joy to be around. As a graduate research assistant in CISTP I sought out his humor as well as his guidance on both scholastic endeavors and life. There was a group of us all working together, Guy, Avery, and Chirag, and we had a blast with the Professors, especially Dr. Rycroft whom we nicknamed DJ Bobby R. He will be missed but always remembered.
Per Nick (Vivio)’s comment above, DJ Bobby R was a blast to work and study with. He had that perfect combination of humor and intellegence. So much of my persepctive on science and technology policy was shaped by his scholarship… in particular, understanding innovation as a complex sytem. I enjoyed every moment of classtime with him – as Jim Dooley noted above, lectures often turned into vigorous discussions! – and appreciated all the materials he curated for us…especially his printed notes in ARIAL BOLD ALL CAPS. I think I still have some of those in a folder somewhere…
I am sorry to read that professor Rycroft has passed away. I enjoyed his class and learned from a couple of conversations i had with him back in 2005-2007. May he rest in peace.
Jeff (Kinder) and I were saddened to hear of Professor Rycroft’s passing. We both enjoyed the class he taught in tandem with Professor Logsdon. They were a great pair! Insider and outsider.
Because I worked as a student for John, I was often in the office and it was always nice to chat with Bob.
Since Jeff and I met in the S&T policy programme, our time at GW (1993-1995) will always hold a special place in our memories. — Céline Lévesque MA 1995
I am very sorry to hear that Dr. Rycroft has passed away. He was a great teacher – fun, encouraging, engaging, and smart. You would not be able to come out of his room without chatting with him for hours. During my first year at GWU, Dr. Vonortas was on his sabbatical leave, so Dr. Rycroft was my go-to professor. I was planning to study environmental policy at GWU, but he saw I had more fun researching (and talking about) S&T policy and suggested that I focus on Japanese S&T (industrial) policy instead. When I wasn’t sure about something, he encouraged me saying “you know more than you think you know.” I’m forever grateful for his advice and mentorship.
Professor Rycroft would joke that he was tenured so he could get away with whatever he liked. We grad students were certain he wasn’t really joking. It was evident that teaching was his passion within the program and I was fortunate to learn from him about dealing with complexity of technology and other topics that benefit my own work today. Sorry to hear of his passing but he leaves an important legacy in his former students out there impacting the world. Nice to see some familiar names in the blog and comments, remembering Professor Rycroft.