April 29, 2021
Known for contributions that shaped the ILR School in its first decades, a gentle manner and long-running friendships with peers, Professor Emeritus Robert “Bob” Aronson died April 19 at age 104 at Bridges Cornell Heights, Ithaca.
He was the last surviving faculty member from the school’s first years and a labor economist who saved money to enter Ohio State University by pausing his education after high school to work in a Harley-Davidson dealership, a foundry and department stores.
The son of Eastern European immigrants, he interrupted his graduate studies at Ohio State University to enlist in the U.S. Army and serve as a B-24 navigator in World War II. After the war, he earned a doctorate at Princeton University.