Bob Carney, a professor of management at Georgia Tech for 40 years, believed the best way to prepare his students for life in the real 9-to-5 world was to conduct his classes with a strong hand and a firm structure.
He taught courses that prospective Tech management school graduates were required to take in their final quarter and had to pass if they were to get their diplomas. The thrust of his courses was to examine case studies of real business decision-making and to learn from the successes and failures of the managers.
"Bob set strict guidelines for the papers he required us to write. You could write a perfectly thoughtful essay and still get graded down for typing errors, even incorrect margins," said Jim Drew of Mableton, a former student and a longtime friend. "He saw himself as a gatekeeper. You had to be on your game to get by him and enter the business world."
If students were to make oral presentations in his classes, they had to look the part, dressing as for the office. "And you'd get graded down for ums and ahs in your vocal presentation," said another student and longtime friend, Kim Stanek of Mableton.
"It is time to stop apologizing for the use of authority ... the absence of it is anarchy," Mr. Carney wrote in the spring 1987 issue of the Georgia Tech magazine. That was a constant theme in inspirational addresses he gave 75 to 100 times a year to business and government audiences throughout the United States and in Canada, Mexico, Germany, Japan and South Korea.
Robert William Carney, 87, died May 9 at his Cumming residence of renal failure. No service is planned. The family suggests donations in his memory be made to Georgia Tech. Byars Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Cumming, is in charge of arrangements.
Born in Sidmon, Pa., he served as a U.S. Army Air Corps radio operator in India during World War II. In 1946 he entered Kent State University, where he received his bachelor's degree, then went on to Cornell University for his master's and doctoral degrees.
He taught briefly at the University of Louisville and Kalamazoo College before moving in 1957 to Atlanta. After teaching three years at Emory University, he joined the faculty at Georgia Tech. He retired in 1994 but stayed on for six years as a professor-emeritus, teaching one course in the fall and two in the spring.
His personal life was nearly as ordered as his classroom. Wednesday nights were for dancing at McKinnon's Louisiane restaurant in Buckhead. Sundays at midday were for having friends and family over for brunch. He gave a big garden party every July for as many as 100 guests. And each year around Christmas he and his wife Beverly could be found on the ski slopes of Vail, Colo. She died in 2005.
Each year he signed up for the season of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. "He liked to sit close to the front so he could get a good view of the guest soloists," said Carolyn Cartwright, his companion the last four years. The two of them also were regular theatergoers at the Alliance, the Fox and the Georgia Ensemble Theater in Roswell.
He danced all his adult life. Years ago he and his wife Beverly were a graceful pair on the ice or on roller skates. "On the ballroom floor they were as accomplished as any contestants you see on ‘Dancing with the Stars,'" Mrs. Stanek said.
She said Mr. Carney made everything he did look easy, and that included skiing. The Carneys invited Mrs. Stanek and her family to join them in Vail, and she observed he was an agile skier even into his 70s.
Mr. Carney gave a lot of attention to landscaping his front and backyards because he did so much entertaining there.
"Dad concluded the pine trees on his property were messy so he had them taken down and instead planted crepe myrtles that blossom beautifully in the summer," said his daughter, Cherie Shorter of Reno, Nev. "He was impressed during his trips to Japan by how gardens there were graced without plants, and so he took out some plants and replaced them with boulders and large stones for a Japanese touch."
Also surviving is a sister, Ruth Bowers of Clearwater, Fla.
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