Robert Bishop, MIT economist and dean, dies at age 96
Robert Bishop, a microeconomic theorist and innovative teacher who served as head of MIT’s Department of Economics and as dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, died on Thursday, Feb. 7, at his home in Cambridge. He was 96, and had been affiliated with MIT continuously since 1942. “Bob was a terrific colleague and exceedingly sharp,” said Robert M. Solow, professor emeritus of economics at MIT, who first met Bishop in the 1940s. “He was a marvelous teacher, very precise, very careful, and very detailed.” As a researcher, Bishop published papers on a range of topics, including game theory and public finance. As a teacher, he was known for, among other things, the “Bishop notes” — a detailed set of notes on course 14.121, a graduate-level introduction to microeconomic theory, which became an essential resource for PhD students over many years. Whether in his research, teaching, or...