Robert Z. “Bob” Aliber (Missoula ’51)
Posted: October 28, 2025
Bob passed away peacefully at his home in Evanston, IL, on June 22, 2025, following a short illness. He was 94 years old.
Bob was a global luminary in the field of international economics, a bow-tied scholar who authored six books, served as a trusted and oft-quoted authority on economic trends, and taught for decades at the University of Chicago. He is perhaps best known for his contribution to the theory of foreign direct investment, identifying a correlation between the strength of a country’s currency and the likelihood that firms from that country will engage in either foreign or domestic investment. His six books on economics and other financial issues were highly regarded, as were his many academic articles. An expert in economic patterns, Bob was an early predictor of the 2008 global financial meltdown. He also predicted the economic collapse in Iceland—18 months before it happened.
Bob was born in Keene, NH, on September 19, 1930. After jumping the 1951 season at Missoula, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Williams College in 1952. While there, he co-founded the school’s flying club. He’d have a lifelong love of flying and would later own his own plane and glider.
Bob attended Cambridge University in England as a Fulbright Scholar, earning his master’s degree there in 1954.
A year later, Bob and his late wife, Deborah, were married in Charleston, SC. They would have three children, Jennifer, Rachel, and Michael. When Deborah died in 2012, she and Bob had been married 57 years.
Bob served in the Army from 1954-56 and then returned to school, earning a PhD from Yale in 1962. His dissertation on foreign exchange markets put him on the map as a young economist to watch.
Bob made good on his early promise immediately, serving as a senior economic advisor for the U.S. Agency for International Development in Washington, DC.
In 1965, he joined the faculty at the University of Chicago School of Business (now the Booth School of Business), where he would teach international economics and finance until 2005. While there, he recruited many top-drawer economists to the school’s roster. In fact, when Bob retired, a colleague said, “It is reasonable to say that during the mid-1970s, Bob was instrumental in helping assemble the greatest collection of talent in international economics that has ever been at a single university.”
Besides flying, Bob’s hobbies included tennis, squash, biking, skiing, and ski jumping. In 1982, he and his wife started spending their summers in Vermont, a part of the country they loved immensely. He also enjoyed travelling for pleasure. He and Deborah were especially drawn to the museums and history of Berlin and made repeated visits to that city.
An NSA Life Member, Bob was a steadfast supporter of the NSA and a generous benefactor of the NSA Scholarship Program over the years.
Besides his three children and six grandchildren, Bob left behind a partner, Jacqueline Winter.
