Robert Scott Krause

Robert Scott Krause

1949 - 2022

Robert Scott Krause, global resident and eternal adventurer, passed away on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, at his home in Nokomis, FL after heart complications. Robert was born December 10, 1949 in Philadelphia, PA, son of Betty Acker Krause and Philip Crossland Krause. He was predeceased by his parents, who influenced him to live a life filled with curiosity and love of learning.

Bob is deeply missed by friends and colleagues, who are quick to describe him as "a smart guy, funny, kind, personable." He was a tremendous mentor for so many, from coaching middle school sports teams to the global political groups he led. He was a kind and loving father and friend, filled with an exuberance that was infectious and motivating. He was a person who knew how to befriend others and bring out the best in them. Someone who embraced and even relished difficult problems, Bob was always up for a challenge. He was a self described "maverick," one of his favorite words, a rabble-rouser and a non-conformist. Bob thrived in environments that were complex, diverse, and multi-faceted. He loved travel and other languages and cultures, and he saw the humanity in everyone. In addition to the sports that were close to his heart - namely basketball, baseball, football, skiing, fishing, tennis, golf and hiking - he especially enjoyed playing games with friends, especially bridge, spades, cribbage, and a lively game of setback. Win or lose, Bob's charismatic laugh could easily fill a room, and his cheering could be heard across a field, likely for miles. That voice endures.

Most people who knew Robert would mention his tenacious joyful passion when it came to competitive games of any kind, education and sports included. He loved the process of discovery. Growing up, he was a rocket enthusiast, citing Robert Goddard as a prime childhood hero because of his intelligence and perseverance. Bob was a competitive athlete, excelling at baseball, football, and basketball. Baseball was what he called his favorite sport, and Lou Gehrig his role model, in his words, "not so much for his batting prowess but for his incredible courage in the face of an illness completely out of his control." Robert graduated as valedictorian of his class and student council president of William Tennent High School in 1968. He was a National Scholar at Cornell University, earning his BA with Honors in International Relations and Economics in 1972. While at Cornell, he joined ATO fraternity, where he would make friendships that lasted a lifetime.

There was a professor at Cornell who inspired Robert to focus his studies on law and diplomacy, honing in on Soviet policy in the Cold War era. He went on to earn both a Master of Arts, Law and Diplomacy (1974) and a Ph.D. in International Business Transactions in 1978 from The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, a joint program of study between Tufts and Harvard Universities. He completed his PhD thesis right at the advent of the birth of his first daughter. His doctoral dissertation examined model partnerships for industrial cooperation agreements in Soviet bloc markets.

These studies would lead Robert and his family overseas to live in the U.S.S.R. in the 1980's, experiencing communism firsthand at such a pivotal time in history. It was an exciting life there, living in a Russian apartment building outside the Embassy, experiencing Soviet and Expat culture, and building a career as Director of the Commercial Office of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from 1982-1986.

Robert's love of skiing was reinforced during annual trips from the Soviet Union to Austria. Though he might have developed a taste for Borscht, his favorite foods remained Philly cheese steaks, pickles and potato chips. The music he loved was classical (Wagner, Mozart, Ravel), blues, jazz, and soul (Davis, Parker, Gaye), and he also enjoyed waking his children up with a rousing rendition of a patriotic march by John Philip Sousa. He leaned into a good project, whether blazing a trail through the woods in the backyard in Harvard MA, organizing baseball cards, or building furniture. He was the best anybody had ever seen at packing a Volvo four-door sedan as if it had the capacity of a 10-person van, as he knew how to use every square inch of three dimensional space, as camping trips and college dorm move-outs would attest to.

He enjoyed the thrill of white water rafting in the most difficult rapids, skiing black diamond trails, body surfing in teeth-rattling waves, and traversing Knife's Edge at the summit of Mt. Katahdin, pinnacle of the Appalachian Trail. He loved nature and "sucking the marrow out of life." He adored dogs, including Black Labrador Barney and Huskie mix Nikki. One of his favorite things to do on a weekend was a trip to a museum with his family - think Smithsonian with Da Vinci's newly discovered Ginerva on display - and he would regularly make friends with the docents and make the tours even more interesting and colorful. His sense of humor and knack at remembering facts and creating links between art, science, and history was part of his gift. He was a storyteller and an enthusiast of life in every sense.

After that first role in Moscow, Robert would go on to make an impact politically in many different ways. He led the private industry discussions in 1988-90 with U.S. Government agencies to change U.S. export administration regulations to allow the sale of current computer systems to customers in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union for the first time since 1979. In Russia, he worked closely with the leadership there to change Soviet law in 1987 to allow joint ventures with Western majority control to operate on Soviet soil for the first time. He developed and won approval for the investment plan for Digital Equipment Corporation (now Hewlett-Packard) to open subsidiaries in Russia and Ukraine in 1991. There are many highlights of Robert's multi-faceted work that strove to create bridges, offer more economic opportunity, and localize government power structures, giving more agency to local expertise. He brought many teams closer together and created cadence within what would otherwise be a chaotic situation in many post-Soviet economic systems in the decades to follow the collapse of the U.S.S.R.

Looking back at Robert's career of over 40 years working as an international business manager and consultant, the breadth and depth of his work is admirable. He had a wide swath of practical expertise in investment projects development, regulatory policy, business enabling environment, competitiveness initiatives, investment and trade policy, public private partnerships and strategic product planning. With extensive work in Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Western Europe, Japan, and the U.S., Robert was a true global citizen with a futurist mindset.

He loved to travel overseas and meet and work with local teams. One close friend collaborating with him on a project in Ukraine in the mid 2000s would say, "Bob had the background knowledge and specific content expertise. And he knew the obstacles being faced. No one had done this type of work before, and it took a lot. And Bob thrived in that kind of environment and he liked it. He got along really great with everyone, coaching them through problems and creating new policy solutions."

Robert is survived by his second wife of twenty years, Marlene T. Harrison. He is also survived by his children: Caitlin Elizabeth Krause of Walnut Creek, CA, and Emily Sarah Krause Beauchesne, husband Dave Beauchesne, grandson Zachary Quinn Beauchesne, of Maynard, MA. He is also survived by Marlene's children Monica Harrison of Mannassas, VA, Lindsey Harrison of Arlington, VA, and Alex Harrison of Los Angeles, CA, and also by his brother and sister, Larry Krause of Warminster, PA and Karen Kotz of Cary, NC, his first wife Kathleen Krause of Wellesley, MA, and many family members and good friends worldwide.

One of Robert's favorite spots in the world was Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania, where he spent wonderful visits with family. Caitlin and Emily have made memorial donations there in his name. He also cared passionately about global projects, including Ukrainian aid programs. In lieu of flowers,you could consider a memorial donation to one of the organizations he held dear:

Ukraine Aid: https://www.ukraineaid.group/

Longwood Gardens: https://longwoodgardens.org/support

Smithsonian Museums: https://www.si.edu/support