Oliver, Robert W.

Biography

Robert W. Oliver was born in Los Angeles on October 26, 1922. He attended the University of Southern California (USC), where he earned his BA degree in 1943 and his MA degree in 1948, both in economics and international relations. In 1957 he received his PhD in economics from Princeton University.

Oliver worked as a research economist with the Stanford Institute from May 1956 to September 1959, where he engaged in studies dealing with civil defense, international shipping, the role of small-scale manufacturing in economic development, and the economy of the City of Pasadena.

During the 1950s he was an instructor at Pomona College and an assistant professor at USC. Then, in September of 1959, he joined the faculty of the California Institute of Technology, where he conducted courses in elementary economics, international economics and economic development. During the years of 1961-1963, he administrated a faculty graduate-student seminar on the problems of technical assistance to less developed countries. For twelve years (1975 to 1987) he was chairman of the student working-group of the California Seminar on International Security and Foreign Policy.

During his many years at Caltech, Oliver also worked as an economist with the World Bank. In the summer of 1961, he transcribed an oral history of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for the Brookings Institution, and in 1986, as a consultant to the World Bank, he conducted in-depth interviews for the Bank's oral history project. In 1970-1971, while on leave from Caltech, he worked in the Economics of Urbanization Division of the World Bank in Washington, DC, and participated in Bank missions to Indonesia and Taiwan.

Oliver was also involved with the local politics of the city of Pasadena. During the years of 1964-1965, he was chairman of the Pasadena Citizens' Downtown Improvement Bond Committee, chairman of the Task Force on Housing of the Pasadena Human Relations Committee, and also served on the Community Relations Committee of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce. In 1965 he was elected to a four-year term on the Pasadena Board of Directors, from which office he retired in 1969, without seeking reelection. From 1972 through 1975, and from 1991 through 1995, he was a member of the Planning Commission of the City of Pasadena. He also served on the City's Utility Advisory Commission and the Board of Directors of the Pasadena Minority History Foundation. He was President of the Pasadena Beautiful Foundation and also served on the Pasadena Historical Society, Tournament of Roses Association and League of Women Voters.

Oliver died of a heart attack at his home in Pasadena on July 17, 1998.

From the guide to the Robert W. Oliver Papers, 1946-1998, (California Institute of Technology. Caltech Archives)