Deceased May 24, 2017
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In Memory
Robert Waltz “Bob” Eisenmenger died on May 24 at age 91.
After graduating from Amherst High School, he joined the U.S. Navy, serving as a navy radio technician at Pearl Harbor during World War II. He returned and entered Amherst College, receiving his undergraduate degree in economics. At Amherst, he belonged to Theta Xi.
Bob received his first master’s from Yale in 1951 and then joined the U.S. Forestry Department in Oregon. There, he met and married Carolyn Slaver. He also developed a timber appraisal system in Oregon.
Bob, Carolyn and a baby daughter returned to Massachusetts to attend graduate school at Harvard. Bob received a master’s degree in public administration in 1955 in preparation for a career with the forestry service in Washington, D.C. Instead he was hired by the Federal Reserve Bank as research economist. He returned to Harvard, receiving a Ph.D. in economics in 1963. His doctoral thesis, published as a book, is The Dynamics of Growth in New England’s Economy 1870–1964. Carolyn and Bob moved to Natick in 1955.
Bob spent 36 years at the bank, ending as first vice president and chief operating officer. He retired in 1992.
Following retirement Bob worked as a consultant. Projects included work in banking reform for the Republic of Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union and reviewing the payment system in Bosnia for the U.S. Treasury. Bob also spent several years on the board of the Five Cents Bank in Cape Cod, the Natick Planning Board and the New England Board of Higher Education, which he served as chairman. He was a trustee of New England Natural Resources, the Educational Resources Institute and the Massachusetts Congregational Fund.
He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Carolyn; three daughters, Anne, Katherine and Lisa; and eight grandchildren.
He will be missed.
Celeste Ringuette W’48