Robert N. Burr

Professor Emeritus Robert Burr, one of the country’s leading authorities on Latin American history, passed away on December 8, following cardiac arrest in Port Jefferson, Long Island, where he resided. He was 98.

Burr wrote extensively about the history of Latin American politics. He traveled widely in Latin America and was best known for his work on Chile. In 1966, his path-breaking study, “By Reason or Force: Chile and the Balancing of Power in South America, 1830- 1905” (University of California Press) was awarded the Bolton Prize for the best book in Latin American History by the American Historical Association. Among his other noteworthy books were “The Stillborn Panama Congress: Power Politics and Chilean- Colombian Relations during the War of the Pacific” (University of California Press, 1962) and “Our Troubled Hemisphere: Perspectives on United States-Latin American Relations” published in 1967 during a period when he served as associated staff at the Brookings Institution.

Burr was born in Rochester, New York, on Oct. 15, 1916, to John Edwin Burr and Ethel Bills. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1939. He married Virginia Ward in 1940, a marriage that ended in divorce in 1949. The couple had two children, Tracy Elizabeth and Robert Franklin. Burr received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1948. In 1952, he married Elizabeth Evarts, whom he met while doing research in Chile; she passed away in 1998.

During World War II, Burr applied for a commission in the Navy and was accepted for service in the post-war occupation of Japan, but the post fell through when he failed his eye examination. Instead he got a job at the General Railway Signal Corporation, where he helped to build fire control systems for B-29 bombers. In 1945-46, he was engaged in various business enterprises before taking a teaching position at Rutgers University in 1946.

Burr joined UCLA in 1948. He served as professor of Latin American history and helped to establish a major program in Latin American Studies. He chaired the department of history from 1973 to 1978, and headed UCLA’s International Studies and Overseas Programs from 1985 to 1987. Having directed over 40 Ph.D., dissertations, he remained a popular teacher and mentor who took a personal interest in his students and maintained lifelong contact with many, even after his retirement in 1987.

He is survived by his son, Robert, and a niece.