Deceased professor had impact on students, colleagues
Robert “Mac” Rood, a longtime USC professor who loved his students, golden retrievers and Carolina sports, died last month. He was 67.
Rood came to the university’s political science department in 1971 and stayed for 30 years, establishing himself as an expert in international affairs. After he retired in 2001, he returned as a part-time adviser to students in the Honors College. Rood was born in Southampton, N.Y., and graduated cum laude from Saint Lawrence University. He received a master’s degree from Rutgers University and a doctorate from Syracuse University before coming to USC.
“He really loved the students and being around the young people,” his wife Karen Rood said. “He wanted to know what they were doing with their lives, and he wanted to help them.”
His dedication often went past business hours, said fellow professor Mark Tompkins, who sat across the hall from Rood for 30 years. Tompkins said he was often in his office “both early in the morning and late at night.”
“Everyone liked him; everyone knew him,” Tompkins said. “Even though we all get Ph.D.s, not all of us are nice people. He was a nice, nice person.”
One of Rood’s first graduate students was Barron Boyd, now a dean at Le Moyne College in New York. Rood was instrumental to Boyd’s understanding of statistics, and his sense of humor made Boyd’s time at USC memorable. The two remained in touch, even 40 years later.
“A lot of what I became as a teacher and dean came from the kind of role model he was,” Boyd said.
When he wasn’t in the classroom, Rood loved training and playing with golden retrievers, tracing his family roots and attending home basketball and football games.
He is survived by his mother, his wife, a son, a daughter-in-law, two grandchildren, three sisters and five nieces and nephews.