Robert Zipf

1932 - 2021

Robert Zipf
Robert Zipf, beloved father and grandfather, author, and founder of Municalc and Munitype, passed away peacefully on January 12, 2021, at the age of 88.
Bob was born in Boston, MA, on September 19, 1932, to Joyce Waters Brown and George Kingsley Zipf. After spending his formative years in Duxbury and Newton, he studied mathematics at the University of Chicago. Graduating at 19 in 1951, he then earned a second BA at Harvard University in 1953. He later earned an MBA from New York University in 1980.
Bob joined the army in 1954 and proudly served much of his two-year term in Japan. His time there sparked a love of travel. He visited Thailand, Macao and Hong Kong during his service, and South America, the United Kingdom, and Israel later on. Despite this globetrotting, his favorite destination remained Cape Cod.
After leaving the army and spending a few years at the John Hancock in Boston, Bob founded Municalc, a start-up that processed data for the municipal bond industry. In 1965, he moved to New York City and founded Munitype, a second start-up that made time-shared computer services available to the finance community; both companies were pioneering for the time. He then combined his success in computers and bonds at IBM, Merrill Lynch, and AMBAC Indemnities. He also wrote three books, How Municipal Bonds Work (1995), How the Bond Market Works (1997) and Fixed Income Mathematics (2003). These books went into several editions and were translated for the foreign market.
While his interests included chess and bridge, in both of which he was nationally ranked, and the Civil War, Bob's family was his delight. After raising his children in Scarsdale, NY, he moved to Greenwich, CT, frequently visiting his children and grandchildren, happily attending their sporting and artistic endeavors and enjoying his time with them.
Bob will be greatly missed by his children George and Catherine, their spouses Lynn and Mark, his grandchildren Elizabeth, Matthew, Isabelle, and Bridget, his siblings Katie, Jo, and Hank, cousins Georgia and Rachel, ex-wife Deborah, army buddy Don, and friends Joan and Sarah.
In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes donations to one of Bob's favorite places, the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. A memorial service will be held on February 6 at 11am and will be livestreamed at https://www.facebook.com/ststephenswestboro.