Bob Campbell, the founding director of KSE, passed away

With great sadness, we would like to inform you that Bob Campbell, the founding director of the Kyiv School of Economics, died on May 18, 2015, at the age of 89.

Bob was an internationally distinguished scholar, whose research and teaching focused on the economic systems of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He taught at Indiana University for three decades,serving as chairman of the economics department and director of the Russian and East European Institute. In 1996, Bob came to Ukraine to set up the EERC MA program in Economics, KSE’s predecessor. He put together the curriculum, hired the first faculty members and enrolled the first class of students, thus laying the foundation for the further development of KSE as a Center of Excellence for economics education and research. Later on, he served for many years as the Chair of KSE’s international academic advisory board. Bob’s contributions to the creation of a new generation of economists for Ukraine has been immense.

We will miss him dearly.

“Bob Campbell set up the Kyiv School of Economics I doubt that it could have been done without him. He was the leading light. With stern but nice authority he informed everybody how a proper graduate education was to be organized and made sure to get everything done accordingly. No Ukrainian state bureaucracy could hinder him from doing what he rightly considered necessary, and he explained to all who needed to know what to do. His academic and administrative knowledge earned him the great respect he so richly deserved”, – Anders Åslund, one of the founders of the Economic Education and Research Consortium, Member of the International Advisory Board for Ukraine of the EERC, 1995-2007, Co-chair of the board of directors of KSE, 2002-11.

“Bob Campbell cared deeply about what came to be the Kyiv School of Economics and was instrumental in setting it up. I recall him as patient but utterly determined, calm, forthright, honest, and dedicated to the propositions that Ukraine desperately needed to develop an appreciation of modern economics, and the capacity to produce both modern technical economists and economic research at home, rather than sending people abroad. He was proud of KSE, and would be very proud to see it flourishing today, even – especially – during these difficult times”, – Charles Becker, Chairman of the KSE International Advisory Board, Associate Chair of Duke University’s Economics Department.

“There would likely be no KSE without Bob Campbell. In KSE’s early years, I visited Bob on my regular trips to Kiev, and we discussed the laundry list of problems that needed to be solved. Students were collecting stipends but not attending class. Cheating was common. There was no organized recruitment. Bob was never downbeat, always taking for granted that the problem could be solved. When I later joined the KSE board, most of the early problems had been dealt with, but there were always new ones, mostly relating to finances and dealing with Ukraine’s education bureaucracy. Bob was always a voice of reason, sanity, and calm. We all remember his endless energy as we tried to keep up with him on the our morning walk down from Dnipro to Podol, which took place irrespective of the weather. I remember Bob for his exceptional modesty and mid-America simplicity He never spoke of himself or of his considerable accomplishments. He was always content to remain in the background. I remember him unexpectedly handing over the reins of the International Advisory Board to me at our traditional joint IAB and Board of Directors meeting. He simply announced that he was going to retire to visit his numerous children and grandchildren in his camper. He made no fuss over his retirement in his usual manner of modest reserve”, –  Paul Roderick Gregory, Member of KSE International Academic Board, Professor, University of Houston, USA

“I had the great good fortune to meet Bob in 1996 when he was hired by Eurasia Foundation to direct the Economics Education and Research Consortium in Kyiv, the predecessor to the Kyiv School of Economics.  Bob had a quiet elegance in manner and appearance and could easily be mistaken for David Niven.  Bob was the ideal founding director of this pioneering program, with his absolute conviction of the necessity to establish international-caliber economics education in Ukraine, high regard for the intellect of his students, and complete commitment to maintaining the highest academic standards – no matter what the prevailing environment was at the time.  Bob set a standard to which we all aspired and never surpassed.  I was honored to be Bob’s  colleague”, Horton Beebe-Center, President of EURASIA FOUNDATION

“Bob Campbell was a remarkable man. His love of students and his passion to share with them his knowledge and expertise in many countries was limitless. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the idiosyncrasies of which he knew well due to his long academic and practical association with it, Bob immersed himself enthusiastically in creating a first class economics Master’s program at the Kiev School of Economics as it is known today. Guided by his vision, he focused on what was needed to turn the program into a lasting success: engaged teaching, relevant research of highest standards, and local capacity building. And what a success it became: today the KSE is an example of a truly outstanding graduate economics program. It is difficult enough in the best of circumstances to foster educational capacities in foreign countries; to succeed in an environment where old structures, habits and thinking had not yet disappeared and new ones had not yet been fully anchored, is an enormous achievement. When the program had its temporary setbacks and challenges, I remember my worries and at times skepticism, as the director of the program in the early 2000s, about whether it would survive. Bob was free of such doubts. When I called on his advice and guidance in Kiev or Washington, he would listen attentively before suggesting the right course of action. He knew what to do because he was fully aware of the obstacles the program might face before he embarked on creating it. More importantly, the aspirations and transformed lives of the hundreds of students graduating from the School served as his steady compass. To observe Bob sitting in on an exam or conversing with students at the KSE was one of my most memorable experiences because the students knew how much the pursuit of their dreams had been made possible by Bob’s quiet but persistent leadership. I first met Bob as an exchange student at the Russian and East European Institute at Indiana University in 1970. Initially, I was overwhelmed by the rigorous reading program, as well as the demands of a large campus life, but Bob made me feel at home and part of the Institute’s small family. The easygoing relationship with such a renowned person was new to me and it took me a while to get used to it. I owe Bob much gratitude for reassuring me in my interest in the study of planned economies, which he taught so pragmatically and without ideological baggage.  What a pleasant surprise to meet him again 30 years later when I was lucky to assist him in building the KSE”, – Ulrich Hewer,  student of Dr. Robert Campbell, former Executive Director of EERC.

“Reading Bob’s obituary, I came across two sentences about the chapter of his life in which I knew him: “He also worked on improving economics education in new countries where economists who had been trained in a rigidly Marxist perspective had little inkling of modern economics or how a modern economy works. He spent several stints in Kiev, Ukraine, where he organized an MA program in economics.”

Many must have asked him why, in his early seventies, after a long, distinguished academic career, he would want to relocate to Kiev—a bit of a hardship post in the 1990s. I don’t know how he answered that question, but I think I know the answer myself. Surely his dedication to the region, to young people, and to the economics profession were major motivations but so was his keen historical sense. Bob came to Kiev to create something that Ukraine desperately needed:  a new generation of economists.

I do think Bob saw his work in Kiev as a historical mission:  that he took the trouble to see that his papers from the early days of the Kiev school made their way into the archives of Indiana University is just one indicator of that fact. In keeping with Bob’s historical sense, I think it worthwhile to put down a few more words about the great contribution Bob made after he “retired.”

Bob set up the program in 1996, with funding provided by a group of international donors—foundations and governments—known as the Economics Education and Research Consortium (EERC). I joined Bob in March 1997, about six months after teaching had got underway, as his deputy for administration and student affairs (he sometimes called me “dean of students”). The program was initially housed at a partner university, Mohyla Academy, but has since evolved into a stand-alone entity—the Kiev School of Economics.

For me, the iconic image of Bob in those days is he at his desk in the early evening, one hand on his forehead, the other clutching a pen, as he concentrated on a single piece of paper, on which he was trying build a coherent curriculum and juggle the schedules of a dozen or so faculty willing to come to Kiev for anywhere from seven weeks to ten months. There was always one or two visitors from Indiana University (Roy Gardner, Chris Waller et al.) but many more from other universities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Israel. For Bob, the goal was not to provide an education that was “good enough” but “the best possible.”

The great effort and care that Bob put into this work was undoubtedly part of his character but also reflected his deep historical sense that he was creating something that Ukraine desperately needed:  a new generation of economists. By the time Bob returned to Bloomington, he had laid the foundation of the Kiev School of Economics:  he put together a solid M.A. program with 70 some students studying modern economics in English from highly qualified international faculty. Over the past 18 years, the school has graduated more than 600 young economists—a tremendous contribution to Ukraine’s development.

Bob’s stature, about which he was modest, was important to the school’s reputation in the early days. As one of the U.S.’s leading authorities on the Soviet economy, he was well known among economists in Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet republics. I recall, for example, the dean of the economics department at our host university telling how he had read some of Bob’s works during the Soviet period—but that he had to get a special permit and travel to Moscow and to consult the closed stacks of one of the economics institutes.

Bob’s deep knowledge of the history of economics in Russia and Ukraine helped contextualize what we were doing and find parallels in pre-Soviet history. (Just a few years ago—at age 86!—he published his Biobiliographical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Economists.) He was also able to harken to distinguished Ukrainian economists of the pre-Soviet and Soviet periods.

Once or twice at public events, Bob mentioned that he had first come to Kiev in the early 1950s, which sent a ripple through the audience, as they stiffened, pursed or rounded their lips, nodding or even releasing an appreciative “Ohh…”

For another ten years or so after returning to Bloomington, Bob remained committed to the Kiev School and was very active on its International Advisory Board, serving as chairman and taking many important decisions in guiding the School through its ups and downs.

My last communication with Bob was (sadly) almost two years ago. Forbes Ukraine had published a list of the top 15 Ukrainian economists. Most of them were graduates of the M.A. program that Bob started, and most of those who weren’t alumni had taught in the program and supervised theses. Nearly all of the economists ranked by Forbes are based abroad, but IDEAS/RePEC has a similar ranking of economists living and working in Ukraine. Similarly, the vast majority of those at the top of their profession are graduates of the M.A. program. Likewise, the leading economics think tanks in Ukraine are staffed almost entirely by graduates of the Kiev School.

During the current troubles in Ukraine, one sees part of Bob’s vision coming to fruition as some of the early graduates of the program—now mid-career academics in the U.S. and Ukraine—take up the challenge of pushing the government toward desperately needed reforms and formulating the reform agenda on the basis of economic science but expressed in a way that non-economists can understand.

Bob’s contribution to the success of the Kiev School of Economics was vital, decisive, and indispensable. His work in Ukraine may have been just a small part of a great life of service and scholarship, but it was my great pleasure to witness it and now to tell of it.” – Kent Lewis, University of Kansas

You can read more about Robert Campbell in his obituary here.