Bear F. Braumoeller

Bear Braumoeller, 55, of Worthington, Ohio, died May 3, 2023, at Oslo University Hospital in Oslo, Norway, following a short illness.

He was born January 31, 1968, in Walnut Creek, California, to Molly (Wheeler) and Fred Braumoeller. He is survived by his wife Kristen, daughter Molly, brother Rick (Cindy), half-sister Friedel (Ed) Cunningham, stepsiblings Ken (Bonnie) Erickson Jr., Craig (Dorcas) Erickson, Jan Smith, Kim (Jeff Clark) Erickson, and Nancy (Bill) Carle, cousin Jane (Jerry) Girod, and her father Jim (Paula) Edgar. Bear was also close with his many nieces and nephews through his step-siblings and delighted in seeing his daughter and their children get to know one another. He is also survived by a vast number of close friends, colleagues, and graduate students. And he is remembered by people who met him perhaps only once or twice but could not forget his warmth, his tall but gentle stature, and that name. Bear was preceded in death by his parents, his stepfather Ken Erickson, stepsister Mary Thibodo, and stepbrother-in-law Reed Smith.

Bear was a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he held the Baronov and Timashev Chair in Data Analytics and was founder and director of the MESO (Modeling Emergent Social Order) Research Lab at The Ohio State University, where he had been a member of the faculty of the Department of Political Science since 2007. Bear was a computational social scientist whose research focused on international conflict, international order, and the development of new statistical models for social scientists.

Prior to working at Ohio State, Bear was associate professor in the Department of Government at Harvard University and assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He earned his doctoral degree in world politics, with minor subfields in methodology and comparative politics (Russia), in 1998 from the University of Michigan. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations in 1990 from the University of Chicago, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with departmental and general honors.

Bear was the author of two books, Only the Dead: The Persistence of War in the Modern Age (2019) and The Great Powers and the International System: Systemic Politics in Empirical Perspective (2012). The Great Powers won the International Studies Association's Book of the Year Award and the International Studies Association-Midwest's J. David Singer Award, both in 2014.

He was profoundly proud of the work he and graduate students were accomplishing through the MESO lab at Ohio State. They recently learned their first article had been accepted to the American Journal of Political Science. At the time of his death, Bear was a fellow at the Centre for Advanced Study at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo, Norway, on a multidisciplinary project to improve the understanding of escalation and war. This academic year abroad was just the kind of adventure he and Kristen dreamed of living for themselves and Molly.

While Bear's mind bloomed with ideas that most of us can only notionally understand, he seized the whole of life fully and passionately, enjoying food, drink, travel, and experiences-all while, in his words, "collecting awesome people." Bear surrounded himself with people who understood joie de vivre on a cellular level. He was a co-founder of Slow Food Columbus and a vocal and demonstrative advocate of "good, clean, fair" food. He championed local chefs and their restaurants. When he traveled, he sought food and drink that would teach him about culture, history, and culinary artistry. Bear knew the best-and they were also sometimes the humblest-places to dine in any city he visited. Next time you're in San Francisco, stop by Saigon Sandwich and have a banh mi in his honor. Despite the occasional regret (sea cucumber), he was fearless in menu selection and persisted in trying foods that many diners consider adventurous at best.

Despite his travels, accomplishments, and CV, Bear's greatest achievement and biggest pride and joy was his daughter Molly. From the first moments of her life, he was her gentle caretaker, cradling her and reading to her in his soothing, resonating voice. He was her confidante and storyteller, introducing her to graphic novels, Studio Ghibli films, and so much more. His dad jokes were truly awful-slash-amazing. The more Molly and Kristen groaned at his puns, the harder he chuckled.

Bear could laugh until he cried, and a simple human interaction could bring him to tears. The world may have known him for his intellect, but those who were lucky enough to meet him in person knew him first for his heart, so warm and open, holding us. We will all miss him for the rest of our lives.

Memorial gatherings in Columbus and elsewhere will be planned beginning in autumn 2023, after Kristen and Molly return to the United States, and will be shared through digital grapevines. Bear's colleagues have created a GoFundMe in support of Molly's future education; the fund can be found by searching for her name.