This piece was written for IFS by Will Hopper. Along with Nils Taube, John Chown and Will, Bob Buist was one of the four 'founding fathers' of the Institute. The leaves are falling thick and fast. A year ago all four founders of the IFS were looking forward to marking its fortieth anniversary in 2009. In March 2008, however, Nils left us followed in November by Bob. Now only John and I remain. It was Bob who brought us together and provided the original thrust and sense of direction for the institute; John and I will do our best to represent our departed friends at the celebrations.

One problem in talking about Bob is that one does not know where to begin. The man was in every way egregious, using that word in its etymological sense of standing out from the 'grex' or flock. Take his height. Today a man who is six foot six is regarded as tall; half a century ago, he was a giant. Bob was also an outstanding athlete, acquiring Scottish championship titles in the discus, the quarter mile and the half mile. His younger brother, Neil, recalls how, when they attended Highland Balls in Dundee together in their youth, they would run home afterwards, but only Bob leapfrogged over any pillar box that got in his way.

Bob was as successful in the world of finance as he had been in athletics. Starting off as an accountant in the family firm in Dundee, he joined a well-known Edinburgh firm called Ivory & Sime, which managed investment trusts. Until then, money managers had relied on research provided by stockbrokers, but the world was changing fast and Bob realised that the firm must build its own team of analysts. With great energy and professionalism, he built up its activity and reputation in that field. After the failure of his first marriage, he moved to London, where he worked with the US Trust and then Rowan Investment Services.

Bob combined a theoretical with an empirical approach to his studies of the marketplace, being influenced by the cyclical theories of the Russian economist, Nicolai Kondratieff. If Kondratieff was alive today, he would tell us that we were in the 'depression phase' of his cycle, characterised inter alia by falling commodity prices in general but an increase in the price of gold; stable interest rates; a collapse in the stock market accompanied by falling profits; the collapse of the credit system; numerous financial scandals; and the danger of war. Kondratieff believed, however, the capitalism would survive such phases and prosper, which led to his execution by Stalin.

It has often been said that the British Empire was built and run by Scots. Bob's father, a medical practitioner in the Royal Army Medical Corps, was one of them. As a result, the young Bob spent part of his youth in the Old Red Fort in Delhi. When I visited that building a few years ago, I watched the Indian flag being lowered at nightfall while the military band played The Day Thou Gavest Lord Has Ended. It was a unchanging scene that Bob must have witnessed many times, but with the Union flag fluttering in the evening breeze. Later Bob would serve with the Royal Engineers in Palestine under the British mandate; he was always proud of having been a sapper.

Some of my daughter Munisha's fondest memories are of austere but excitingly outdoor holidays spent with Bob and his children in his cottage at Salachail in the hills near Glencoe in Scotland. She recalls in particular his infinite care in teaching her how to cast a fly over a nearly loch. On one occasion she caught two trout.

Bob is survived by his second wife, Vanessa, his sons by his first marriage, James and Torquil, and his grandson Ossian, as well as his brothers Ian and Neil.