The talk will cover Robert's engagement with OR starting in the 60s with work on glass manufacturing operations, coinciding with a PhD at Lancaster and a first encounter with the professional membership debate. The 70s included a brief encounter with the operations of a peat bog, stochastic programming and soft OR which recurred throughout the decades, and the start of research into strategy support. The latter continued in the 80s and beyond and work on data envelopment analysis began. In the 90s, a strong DEA team was built at Warwick, and Robert led the development of the Operational Research Society's fellowship scheme. In 2000s a group met regularly at Warwick leading to a book on strategy support, and EJOR editing began. In the 10s editing continued and work began on the contribution of the founders of OR to soft OR and practice. Editing wound down in the 20s and the founders paper was published in the journal Operations Research.
