Robert North, 87; Political Scientist, Professor at Stanford

Robert C. North, 87, professor emeritus of political science at Stanford who was an expert in quantitative analysis and international conflict, died July 15 in Menlo Park, Calif., of complications from a stroke.

Born in Walton, N.Y., North graduated from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., with a degree in language and literature, and made his living as an English teacher at a prep school in Connecticut before serving in the Army in the Pacific during World War II.

After the war, North came to Stanford, where he eventually completed his master’s degree and doctorate.

While a research associate at the Hoover Institution in 1953, he sparked controversy with a study of Moscow and the Chinese Communists. In the study, he argued that China became a communist state through honest U.S. policy errors and failures by Chinese Nationalists.

North also attacked the witch hunts of the McCarthy era.

He left the Hoover Institution for the political science department at Stanford after completing his PhD work in 1957. At Stanford, he became known for introducing quantitative techniques and the use of computers to the study of international relations.