Monterey, CA

Robert E. Looney, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Naval Postgraduate School, passed peacefully at Community Hospital on December 19, 2024. Beloved husband, father, grandfather, and friend, Bob’s easy-going nature, remarkable intelligence, curiosity about the world, and wonderful sense of humor will be remembered and missed.

Bob was born to Edward Lee and Ella Virginia Looney in San Jose, CA on June 16, 1941. An only child, he grew up on his family’s apricot ranch in nearby Brentwood. He excelled in school but dreamed of becoming a major league baseball player. He was recruited to play on the Santa Clara University team only to discover that he couldn’t hit a hard-slider. The following year, Bob transferred to the University of California at Davis, where he found his true calling in academics, earning a B.S. in Chemistry in 1963 and a Ph.D. in Economics in 1969.

As a young Ph.D., Bob worked as a senior economist at the Stanford Research Institute, as well as a member of the faculty at U.C. Davis, Santa Clara University, and the Monterey (now Middlebury) Institute of International Studies. In 1980, he accepted a position in the National Security Affairs Department at the Naval Postgraduate School, where he taught International Economics for the next forty years. At NPS, he served as thesis adviser to scores of young officers and brought such enthusiasm to his classes that all who studied under him came away with a new-found appreciation for economics and its role in shaping world affairs.

An expert in economic development, Bob served as an advisor on macroeconomic planning and forecasting to the governments of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Panama, Jamaica, and Mexico, as well as the IMF, World Bank, Rand, ILO, and the Inter-American Development Bank. Over the course of his career, he published twenty-two books and more than 250 scholarly articles relating to economic development in the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. He remained a frequent contributor to the Milken Institute and World Policy Reviews until shortly before his death.

Bob is survived by his wife, Pamela; his children, Christopher; Virginia (Steve) Pendleton; Catherine (William) Snow; and four grandchildren.

Bob loved the ocean and spent countless hours walking along the shoreline with his family. His ashes will be scattered at sea in a private memorial. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, the Lustgarten Foundation, or a similar charity.