Robert McKelvey

Robert William McKelvey died peacefully on March 10 in Missoula at age 95. Bob was born on April 27, 1929 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania and spent his boyhood in Ligonier, a small town about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburg. He won a national scholarship to study at Carnegie Mellon University and went on to get his PhD in mathematics at the University of Wisconsin, where he met his future wife, Mavis. They had two children, Maureen and Kevin.

Bob became a tenured professor in mathematics at the University of Colorado in Boulder and rose to become faculty chair. In 1970, he moved to Missoula, Montana to teach at the University of Montana where he focused on applied mathematics associated with exploited animal populations. He applied game-theoretic approaches to the problem of overexploitation of common-property resources (such as marine fisheries) known as the "tragedy of the commons": when resources are held in common, all parties try to get as much a they can leading to inevitable collapse. He asked: are there rules that all parties would see as beneficial (and therefore agree to) that would lead to a sustainable outcome? He continued this work for two decades after retirement, and during this time his life became quite interesting. He was in demand internationally and traveled to and worked in places with interests in the three fisheries he analyzed. He studied Pacific salmon (Vancouver, British Columbia), Atlantic Cod (Halifax, Nova Scotia; Bergen, Norway), and Pacific Yellowfin Tuna (San Diego, California; Sidney, Australia). He also spent a year in Rome, Italy working on fisheries problems for the United Nations.

While teaching at the university in Boulder, he spearheaded the drive to protect the surrounding hills from development, campaigning first for a "Blue Line" that would limit the elevation where city water was available, and then for a local sales tax to buy lands surrounding the town. Dubbed "Greenbelts", these lands would eventually include not only the "viewshed" but also the flood plains of creeks that flowed through town and farmlands lying between Boulder and Denver. When you take the highway from Denver to Boulder you crest a ridge beyond which all development stops and Boulder can be seen as a pretty town gleaming in the distance. That view would probably not exist had Bob not lived there.

All his adult life Bob loved to hike and climb mountains. When he was young, he bicycle-toured extensively. He told a story about biking through rural Pennsylvania on a hot afternoon, spying a small lake, and hurling himself in to escape the heat. A local farmer, seeing him swimming, commented "Don't see too many people swim there due to the leaches."

Bob was predeceased by his wife, Mavis, and daughter, Maureen. He is survived by his sister, Carolyn Cartwright, son Kevin, grandchildren Adrienne and Tara McKelvey and William Spitzer, and great-grandchildren Anthony, Michael, Adrianna, Riley, and Stevie. A family gathering will occur in the spring to celebrate his life. Bob gave generously to many non-profit organizations. Some of his favorites include the String Orchestra of the Rockies, Five Valleys Land Trust, and Montana Public Radio.