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Robert B. Stobaugh

economist (1927–2017)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 5, 2026
Entity authorityQ7341759 ↗
Source-derived summary

Robert Blair Stobaugh (15 October 1927 – 14 August 2017) was an American educator noted for his research into energy economics and corporate governance.

He earned a degree in chemical engineering from Louisiana State University, and went to work as an engineer at companies such as Esso, Caltex and Monsanto Chemical Company. After leaving Monsanto, he earned a doctorate degree in business administration from Harvard University. He spent 29 years as a professor at the Harvard Business School (HBS). He served as director of the HBS Energy Project from 1972 to 1983. According to Harvard Business School, Stobaugh focused his research interests in three areas: corporate governance, energy, and international business. The school credited him with writing or coauthoring fifteen books and over one hundred other publications during his 30-year career with the school. Arguably, his most notable publication was Energy Future: the Report of the Energy Project, which he co-authored with Daniel Yergin in 1979.

Following his retirement from Harvard, he moved to Houston, Texas, where he taught at Rice University for four years. After that, he published the first volume of his memoir entitled "Starting from Arkansas: Four Continents, Four Countries, Four Kids."

Early years

Stobaugh was raised in the small town of McGehee, Arkansas.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Robert B. Stobaugh” as economist (1927–2017). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1927, 2017, 1972, 1983—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1927-10-15. The account is most persuasive where Robert, Stobaugh and economist can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as economist (1927–2017). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7341759. VIAF identifies the subject as 68146634401641931539. The Library of Congress control number is n79129187. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1927, 2017, 1972 and 1983.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

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  2. Expand the search: follow Robert B. Stobaugh primary sources, Robert B. Stobaugh archive and Robert research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Robert B. Stobaugh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.