Edward B. Roberts (1935–2024)
Dear members of the MIT community,
I write to let you know of the passing of an MIT icon: Professor Ed Roberts '58, SM '58, SM '60, PhD '62, who died Tuesday morning after an illness.
As an academic, Ed set records for speed – at 33, the youngest person ever tenured at MIT Sloan, until he was barely edged out by Lester Thurow – and for endurance: His 60 extraordinarily fruitful years on the MIT faculty put him in a league of his own.
Ed was always doing things no one had done before, from being the first person to earn a PhD from MIT in system dynamics, to helping found the first internet company in China, to pioneering the very idea that entrepreneurship is a craft that can be systematically studied and successfully taught.
It is not too much to say that MIT’s flourishing entrepreneurial culture and global reputation as a source of influential start-ups grew from seeds Ed planted here 50 years ago, as the founding director of what is now known as the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship. The author of 12 books and more than 160 articles, he was also actively engaged in the real world of technology and innovation – as an angel investor, as a board member for more than 40 firms and as co-founder of 14 companies.
A full MIT News obituary will appear soon.
Although I only had the opportunity to interact with Ed a few times, I know there are countless people, on our campus and around the world, who are feeling his loss keenly – from the students he taught this year, to the friends and colleagues who find it difficult to imagine MIT Sloan without his mighty presence, to the thousands of former students whose lives he touched and careers he inspired.
Our hearts are with all of them, and with Ed’s wife, Nancy, and all the members of their remarkable family, who have so many deep ties to MIT.
A funeral for Ed will be held this Thursday, February 29, at 11 a.m. at Temple Emanuel, 385 Ward Street, Newton. If you would appreciate personal support in this time, I encourage you to reach out to our many campus resources, listed below my signature.
With deepest sympathy,
Sally Kornbluth
Key Campus Support Resources
- DoingWell: Key support resources for the MIT community.
- Student Mental Health and Counseling Services: Working with students to identify, understand and solve problems, and to help transform that understanding into positive action.
- Student Support Services: An easily accessible hub of support for undergraduates.
- GradSupport and the Graduate Assistance Information Network offer a wide variety of resources to help grad students and families deal with the unexpected.
- Free, confidential, 24/7 assistance is available for faculty, staff and postdocs from MyLife Services