H. Robert Cathcart, a longtime Penn faculty member, died on February 25 at the age of 92.

Dr. Cathcart studied economics at Drake University beginning in 1941 and then left to serve in the United States Army Air Forces in the South West Pacific Theatre. He returned to the US and graduated from the University of Iowa in 1947. He earned a degree in hospital administration at the University of Toronto and completed a Kellogg Foundation fellowship at Blodgett Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He joined Pennsylvania Hospital as an administrative assistant in 1949 and eventually became vice president and then president of the hospital, a position he held until his retirement in 1991.

Dr. Cathcart joined Penn in 1975 in the health care management department at the Wharton School. He was an adjunct professor from 1975-1990 and continued his affiliation with the department as a senior fellow from 1997-2001. He joined the 25 Year Club in 2000 (Almanac December 12, 2000).

He was involved with health care on the local, state, national and international levels—he was chairman of the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council, president of the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania, commissioner of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, chairman of the American Hospital Association and chairman of the National Commission on Nursing.

Throughout his career, Dr. Cathcart received many awards including Pennsylvania Hospital’s Good Samaritan Award, the American Hospital Association Distinguished Service Award and the American College of Healthcare Executives Gold Medal Award. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Villanova University. He oversaw Penn’s Johnson and Johnson Wharton Fellows Program for Management for Nurse Executives and held leadership positions in the National Library of Medicine, the Dorothy Rider Pool Health Care Trust, InterSpec, VHA, Old Philadelphia Development, American Sterilizer Co., Lomax Health Systems, US Retirement Communities, the Mawarid Group, the Hunter Group, HRDI and Waverly Heights.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Tressa, who died in 2016. He is survived by his daughter, Tressa Ann (Jules) Silberberg and grandchildren, Tressa Joan, Zara Anne Grace and Jules Robert.