Robert Hughes Randolph, PhD – 50th Reunion Essay
Robert Hughes Randolph, PhD
140 Chevy Chase St., Apt. 101
Gaithersburg, MD 20878
robertrandolph7@gmail.com
301-213-8948
Spouse(s): Frances L. Randolph, Dr.PH, MPH, CSCC, CRC; m. 1972
Grandchild(ren): Graham, b. 2018
Education: Stanford, PhD, 1980.
Career: Researcher and Systems Programmer, Inst. for the Future, Middletown, CT, and Menlo Park, CA, 1970-72; International Inst. for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria, 1977–79; Researcher & Academic Administrator, East-West Resource Systems Inst., Honolulu, HI (1989–84).
Avocations: Boy Scouts of America, 6 yrs. as Scoutmaster, other positions at unit District & Council levels.
College: Davenport
Robert Randolph was born in San Francisco in 1947 and grew up in Berkeley amid the university culture of coffee houses, bookstores, and art film houses. He attended classes at the University of California, Berkeley during his senior year in high school, then earned a BA degree at Yale University and an MA and PhD at Stanford University, all in history with a focus on Russia and Eastern Europe.
While still an undergraduate, he began using computers in his research, and in subsequent years, became involved in writing some of the first software for human interaction over the ARPANET (software which was a forerunner of e-mail). The ARPANET eventually evolved into the Internet.
After college, Robert worked at the Institute for the Future, a company that does research on the future of technology, health, and organizations. Later he spent two years in Austria as a Research Fellow working at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis doing research involving systems-analytic study of global resource issues and options. He continued this research at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he eventually became assistant director of the Resource Systems Institute at the East-West Center.
In 1985, Robert moved to Washington, DC, where he took a position at the National Council for Soviet and East European Research, an organization that supports research projects that contribute to a better understanding of current developments and future prospects in the communist and now post-communist countries of Europe and Eurasia. He ultimately retired as its president and treasurer.
Robert currently lives in Gaithersburg, Maryland with his wife, Frances. They have been married for more than 45 years and have one son and a grandson. In addition to his formal career, Robert has been a professorial lecturer at Georgetown University, and has been active in community service including the Boy Scouts of America, the American Cancer Society, the American Youth Soccer Organization and the Hawaii Opera Theater.
Although now retired, Robert has remained engaged in volunteer work. He has been treasurer on the board of trustees of the Kentlands Citizens Assembly (the governing body of this path-breaking New Urbanist community). He has also been a volunteer for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, transcribing and proofreading the 35th president’s speeches.
As Robert looks back on his life, he is grateful for the strong educational foundation he received at Yale University which taught him that life is what you make of it and he believes that his life has turned out well.
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