Robert P. Vecchio, SMA Fellow, of Granger, Indiana, died on February 9, 2009 in Memorial Hospital, South Bend, Indiana, after a head injury incurred from a fall. He was 58 years old.

He was born in Chicago on June 29, 1950 to Dominick and Angeline Vecchio. He received his B.S degree in June, 1972 from DePaul University. He went on to earn his doctorate from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1976. While in Champaign, he married his high-school sweetheart, Betty. Robert and Betty moved to South Bend in 1976 when Robert joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame as a Professor of Management. He served as Chairman of the Department of Management from 1983 to 1990. Robert has held the Franklin D. Schurz Chair in Management since 1986. In 1995, he assumed the role of Editor-in-Chief of the SMA's Journal of Management, which was the first journal to be headquartered in the College of Business Administration at Notre Dame. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate business students, Robert served on many editorial boards, published numerous articles, and authored books in the areas of leadership and organizational behavior. Robert loved his work at the University, but what he valued most was time spent with his wife and children.

He was predeceased by his mother and father, and is survived by his wife, Betty, daughter Julie, and son Mark. He is also survived by a brother, Thomas.