Dr. Robert Koff passed away at 80 years old.  He is survived by his beloved wife, Linda Riekes, four children, eight grandchildren, a brother, a brother-in-law, and countless colleagues, friends, and admirers.  

Dr. Koff was born in Chicago and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan, followed by his doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Chicago. He then studied as a postdoctoral fellow with Anna Freud.  After launching his career with a faculty appointment at Stanford University, he returned to Chicago to accept a position as the first dean of Roosevelt University’s College of Education.  In 1980, he moved to Albany, New York to serve as Dean of the School of Education at SUNY Albany.  In 1988, he took a position in St. Louis as the senior vice-president of the Danforth Foundation, where he developed the American Schools Superintendents (the forerunner of the Superintendents Roundtable), and the Jeff/Vander/Lou initiative to revitalize a neighborhood in St. Louis.  Dr. Koff returned to academia in 2003 to serve as director of the Center for Advanced Learning at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr. Koff was a prolific scholar, authoring or co-authoring more than 80 papers or monographs and four books.  He also co-authored the Superintendents Fieldbook, which is used throughout the country at colleges and universities in the training of aspiring school superintendents. 

Dr. Koff’s vision positively shaped American schools.  The family kindly suggests that contributions be made to the educational organizations listed below.

• National Superintendents Roundtable.  9425 35th Avenue, NE; Suite E Seattle, Washington  98115

Dr. Koff  was the driving force behind the creation of the National Superintendents Roundtable, a professional development association for school superintendents.

• St. Louis Internship Program.  4232 Forest Park Avenue; Room 1027 Saint Louis, Missouri  63108

Since the beginning of the St. Louis Internship Program in 1992, Dr. Koff invested his time, talents and resources to help shape SLIP’s mission to provide inner city high school students with summer paid internships, job readiness training, and educational and career development activities.  The program has been replicated in 38 cities