Long Time Urbana Resident
Robert William Resek was born July 2, 1935 in Berwyn, Illinois, the son
of E. Frederick and Ruth E. Resek. While a graduate student at Harvard,
he met a fellow student, Lois Doll and they married July 9, 1960. They
have one son, Richard, who lives in Chesterfield, Missouri with his wife,
Kellie, and their two daughters, Emma and Ellen. He is preceded in
death by his brother John F. Resek.
From 1941 to 1945, he lived with his family in Urbana, Illinois. After the
war his family moved to Park Ridge, Illinois where he graduated from
Maine Township High School in 1953. During this time, he was active in
scouting and attained the rank of Eagle Scout.
He was an undergraduate at the University of Illinois in Urbana, where
he worked as a computer programmer on the Illiac, one of the worlds
first digital computers, and served as a research assistant performing
econometric modeling. He graduated in 1957 as a Bronze Tablet
Scholar and he was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to attend
Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he earned a
Masters of Science in 1960 and PhD in 1961, both in economics.
He became an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of
Illinois at Urbana in 1961 and rose to the rank of Professor. His
research was on technical progress, investment behavior, the demand
for money, risk analysis and regional economics and he published many
articles. His research was funded by the National Science Foundation,
the Social Science Research Council, the US State Department, the
Illinois Chamber of Commerce and the Illinois Board of Higher
Education.

In 1977 he became Director of the Bureau of Economic and Business
Research at the University where they published a quarterly Illinois
Economic review, an annual Illinois Economic Outlook, and a Statistical
Abstract of Illinois. As an advisor to Governor Thompson, he organized
a conference and book, The Midwest Economy: Issues and Policy.
During his tenure, the Bureau significantly expanded its role in
analyzing the state economy including the development of significant
forecasting capability for the state economy and state revenue. He was
active in the Association of University Business and Economic Research
where he served as Director, Vice President and President. For the
University, he chaired the Urbana Campus Advisory Committee on
Priorities and several other major university wide committees. He was
an excellent teacher and was awarded the College of Business Best
Teacher award.
In 1977, he was a Visiting Professor at Kyoto University and the US
State Department Scholar in Japan and gave lectures throughout Japan.
In addition, at various times he served as a visiting Professor at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Colorado, and
UCLA. He served as a consultant to General Motors, the joint Economic
Committee of Congress, the American Bar Association, as well as to the
Illinois Bureau of the Budget and Comptrollers Office. Moreover, he
regularly provided testimony in court cases concerning economic loss
from injury or death.
He served as University Vice President for Academic Affairs from 1988
to 1995 and in this role was chief budget officer and senior academic
officer for the University. He played a role in the continuing increase in
revenue for both the Urbana and Chicago campuses and significantly
increased funding for the Institute of Government and Public Affairs,
provided strong support for the University Press, and reorganized the
Survey Research Laboratory. He was Vice President of the Midwest
Consortium for International Activities and in this role worked to

advance programs in Malaysia, South America, and elsewhere in the
world.
From 1995 to 2005 he served as a professor both in Economics and
Institute of Government and Public Affairs. With others he wrote an
analysis of the value of higher education to the state and nation: Illinois
Higher Education: Building the Economy Shaping Society. And from
1999 to 2004 he was a member of the Governor’s Economic Policy
Council in Illinois.
He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Urbana, where he
was an elder and a trustee. In addition, with his wife Lois, he was active
in supporting Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, where they
served on the Krannert Circle Council. They established the Lois and
Robert Resek Economic endowment to support economics seminars.
They are also elected members of the University of Illinois Foundation.
A memorial service will be held at Clark Lindsey Village in the activity
room on October 13 th at 2pm. In lieu of flowers, donations can be
made in memory of Robert Resek to either the Krannert Center for
Performing Arts at the University of Illinois or to the music fund of the
First Presbyterian Church of Urbana.