Obituary: Robert Sandusky

Robert J. Sandusky, associate professor and the University of Illinois at Chicago University Library’s associate university librarian and associate dean for information technology, passed away from a long illness on April 10.

During his tenure at UIC, Sandusky led major technology efforts for the University Library and the Explore Chicago Collections portal of the regional consortium Chicago Collections. He served on UIC’s Faculty Senate and chaired the Senate Support Services Committee. He was also appointed to the Research Committee of the IT Governance Council and served as chair of the Institutional Stewardship of Research Data Subcommittee.

Sandusky was engaged nationally in the National Science Foundation-funded DataONE: Observation Network for Earth project. He was a co-investigator and member of the Core Cyberinfrastructure Team (2007-2014), a member of the Usability and Assessment Working Group and co-chair of the DataONE Users Group.

Sandusky’s research and publications focused on data management and reuse, sociotechnical systems and most recently on the application of notions of computational provenance to libraries, archives and museums.

“Bob’s contributions to the library, the university and the information science community are significant,” said Mary M. Case, university librarian and dean of libraries at UIC. “His early attention to data-related issues helped the Library prepare training and guidance for data management for campus faculty, and his knowledge and eagerness to learn more led to his engagement with the DataONE NSF-funded project. As a colleague, he will be remembered as generous, supportive and thoughtful. He was quiet, but driven and had hoped to accomplish so much more. He was clearly taken from us much too soon.”

Prior to joining UIC in 2007, Sandusky was assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in the School of Information Sciences. He received his Ph.D. in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Prior to his career in academia, he spent a decade as systems officer of the Fednet National Network Management Control Center at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago. He also was a programmer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at UIUC and worked at the ComPsych Corporation in Chicago.

Sandusky was passionate about biking, reading, hiking and camping, music and the Monticello Community Garden in his neighborhood.

Sandusky is survived by his wife, Lora Lode, and his children, Charles (wife Katy Dittmar) and Kiera. He is also survived by a sister, Barb Campbell.

A memorial service will take place later this year.