Dr. Robert Louis Pfaltzgraff, Jr., 89, died Friday, November 17, 2023, at his home in Wayne, Pennsylvania. He was professor emeritus at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, where he taught for fifty years. He retired in 2021 from his position as the Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of International Security Studies at Fletcher. He was the visionary behind the establishment of Fletcher's international securities program, laying the foundation for numerous graduates to embark on impactful careers in foreign service and security intelligence. As a tribute to his many years of service, Fletcher will establish an endowed chair in his name in the international securities program. In November 2022, he was made an honorary professor at Panteion University in Athens, Greece. Before his tenure at Fletcher, he taught at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Pfaltzgraff also founded and served as president of the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, an organization that specialized in national security, foreign policy, and defense planning issues. Throughout his distinguished career, he provided invaluable guidance to government officials on critical matters such as military strategy, defense modernization, alliance relations, proliferation and counterproliferation, terrorism, homeland security, and national security policy. He was the author of many books, and journal articles, including (co-author) of the seminal book Contending Theories of International Relations, which is widely used in graduate level teaching in the United States and abroad today.

Dr. Pfaltzgraff advised several US presidential administrations and was a member of the Reagan Defense Advisory Team, formed prior to President Reagan's election in 1980. After the fall of the Soviet Union and subsequent German reunification, he briefed President George Herbert Walker Bush, Brent Scowcoft, and Condoleezza Rice on foreign policy planning. He was a founding member of the Independent Working Group which focused on missile defense, electromagnetic pulse, and cyber threats to the United States. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and The International Churchill Society.

Dr. Pfaltzgraff graduated from Yeadon High School in 1952, Swarthmore College in 1956, and received his doctorate in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania as well as an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He enjoyed classical music, traveling the world, collecting model trains, and was an expert on Winston Churchill having read every book ever written by him and about him.

Dr. Pfaltzgraff was predeceased by his wife Diane; he is survived by his children Suzanne (Karl) Scheel and Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, III (Dr. James N. Black, V), his grandson Dietrich K. Scheel, his brother Richard Pfaltzgraff, and Dr. Jacquelyn K. Davis, his partner of many years.

His Funeral Service and Burial were private.