Robert Louis Aronson

Robert Louis Aronson died April 19, 2021 at Bridges at Cornell Heights, Ithaca. He was 104 and had been in declining health for several months.

Bob, as he liked to be known, was born January 22, 1917 to Isaac Eli and Freda Lurie Aronson in Dunkirk, New York, where he and his younger brother, Herbert, lived until 1929 when the Depression forced his family to move to Cleveland, Ohio for better economic opportunities. In Cleveland at Patrick Henry Jr. High and at Glenville High, Bob competed on the wrestling and cross country teams and gamely tried his hand at the violin.

Unsure of what career he wanted to pursue – compounded by all the uncertainties that the Depression caused – Bob thought college was probably out of his reach financially. So, he took a series of jobs after high school, including part-time work at the local Harley-Davidson dealer helping in the shop, and working full time in a small pipe foundry running a machine that put the threads in the fittings and various stock and floor clerk jobs in department stores.

In 1936, with the assistance of his Uncle Aaron, the National Youth Administration Program and part-time jobs when not in class, Bob was finally able to enroll full-time at Ohio State University where he received a BA and a MA in Economics in 1941. Just after completing his MA, and while pursuing his PhD at Ohio State, Bob joined the Civilian Pilot Training Program and not long after Pearl Harbor in December 1941, got his pilot’s license and applied for admission to the Army’s Aviation Cadet Program. Within a month, his draft number came up and he was inducted at the age of 25 as an enlisted soldier instead of going directly in to flight training. Finally making it to the Army Air Corps, he went on for pilot training, but having “washed out”, he pursued navigation training. Being part of an air crew was more important to him than ground assignment. He served as a navigator with the 456th Bomb Group, Cerignola, Italy through September 1944 and was given an early discharge in October 1945.

After the war, Bob returned to Cleveland but decided not to pursue his PhD further at Ohio State and left for Princeton University, where he earned his PhD in Economics in 1953. While at Princeton, Bob met his first wife, Judith Esther Rosenthal, in an advanced economic theory class that she was auditing in September 1947. They were married a year later on September 7, 1948.

Bob joined the faculty of the Department of Labor Economics at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University in the fall of 1950 and served on the Cornell faculty until retiring in 1982. A Fulbright Research Fellowship took the family to Jamaica, West Indies in 1957. Bob was also a visiting professor at Ohio State University, the University of Louisville, the University of California, Berkeley, and a visiting fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London. In addition to his teaching responsibilities and ongoing research, Bob was a consultant to the government of Ghana on wage policy in the public sector and was a member of an ad-hoc panel of mediators-fact finders for the New York State Employment Relations Board from 1972 to 1991. Over the course of his career and as a Professor Emeritus, Bob published twenty-two books and/or monographs on key areas of interest including the effect of industrial and technological change on workers, unions and labor markets as well as a pioneering study of self-employment.

Bob and Judy raised two daughters, Michal and Elizabeth. In April 1992, Judy, his wife of 44 years died after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Bob was extremely lucky to find love and companionship again with Nancy Pettengill Bent. They married in September 1995. Sadly, Nancy died unexpectedly five years later in March 2000.

Bob is survived by his daughter, Michal and her husband, Jules, who live in Ossining, New York and his grandson, Joshua, who lives in Florida and his daughter, Elizabeth, who lives in Syracuse. He is also survived by his step-children and step-grandchildren: Rodney Bent who lives in Ithaca, his children, Nathan and Abigail; Laurie Bent and her husband, Joel Angiolillo, who live in Weston, Massachusetts and their children, Carl (Shira), Julie (Hayden) and Gina (Fred); and Timothy Bent and his wife Tisse Takagi, who live in New York City and their children, Eleanor, Sarah and Fred. Bob’s brother Herbert died after an accident on April 19, 1997, the same day, 24 years later that Bob died. His sister-in-law, Gloria and his nieces, Herb’s daughters, Sandy, Lynne (Keith) Adrienne (Ken) and Elise also survive him. His nephew, Paul Baren and his wife, Jackee Picciani, who live in Nevada, survive him as well.

Bob loved his life in Ithaca, his immediate and extended family, the Cornell community and his former neighborhoods of Renwick Heights and Forest Home. He had a strong belief in community service and served as a board member on the Ithaca Memorial Society, Planned Parenthood of Tompkins County, as Chair for the Ethics Board, Town of Ithaca and volunteered with Literacy Volunteers of Tompkins County. In addition to a lifelong love of reading, Bob was an avid tennis and squash player, liked piloting small air craft and flying. He also enjoyed music, especially the piano (starting piano lessons at the age of 60), foreign travel, cross-country skiing and nature walks.

There will not be a funeral. A gathering for family, friends and colleagues to remember Bob’s life will be held at a later time. In lieu of flowers, any donations in his memory should be made to Planned Parenthood of Tompkins County, the Southern Poverty Law Center, Hospicare and Palliative Care Services of Ithaca or Amnesty International, Group 73.