Bob Ekelund was a modern polymath who combined prodigious talents with a warm and engaging personality. An accomplished artist and competitive pianist, he co-authored popular textbooks in the history of economic thought, general economics, intermediate microeconomics, intermediate macroeconomics, and money and banking. His thirty books and over two hundred articles dealt with advertising, politics, the Civil War, the international transmission of ideas, the behavior of organizations and institutions, government administration, religion, art, and the medieval church.