Kevin McCarthy, Longtime Santa Monica Resident and RAND Researcher, Developed Tools to Predict Family Mobility

Kevin Farley McCarthy, a longtime RAND Corporation researcher who worked on projects ranging from immigration to the arts, died March 17, 2015, after a brief illness. He was 70.

McCarthy is survived by his wife Susan McCarthy, a longtime employee of the City of Santa Monica who served as city manager from 1999 to 2005.

“Kevin's work helped cities, states, judiciaries and museums address some of their most difficult issues,” said Michael D. Rich, RAND's president and CEO. “He was one of RAND's most versatile researchers in terms of the range of public policy issues he tackled in his career.”

McCarthy joined RAND in 1976 and retired in 2007 but continued to contribute to RAND research in an adjunct capacity until 2013. He began his career working on housing policies, an area where he developed tools to help predict family mobility and its impact on housing. He later directed the RAND Institute for Civil Justice and headed an initiative at RAND that studied the role of the arts in the American economy and society.

He also authored a series of studies examining the impact of immigration on California's economy and studied options for rebuilding housing in the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina. In addition, McCarthy conducted analyses of demographic and economic trends in Mexico and the Caribbean Basin, the Middle East and Russia.

Prior to RAND, McCarthy was an instructor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a consultant with the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. McCarthy received his doctorate and a master's degree in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Services are pending. Arrangements are being made by Gates, Kingsley & Gates Moeller Murphy in Santa Monica.