Robert Myers Ball (March 28, 1914 – January 29, 2008) was an American Social Security official, who served under three presidents (Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon), from 1962 to 1973, as Commissioner of Social Security. He is the longest-serving head of the Social Security Administration to date. He also founded the . He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1935, and in 1936 received a master's degree in economics from the same institution. In 1947, Ball wrote the key statement defining why social insurance, not welfare, should be America's primary income maintenance program.