Ayres, Clarence Edwin (06 May 1891–24 July 1972), economics professor, was born in Lowell, Massachusetts, the son of William S. Ayres, a minister, and Emma Young. He entered Brown University in 1908, obtaining a B.A. in 1912. He was at Harvard in 1913 and then returned to Brown, where he obtained an M.A. in 1914. Ayres married Anna Bryant in 1915; they had three children and were divorced in 1925. He attended the University of Chicago, from which he received a Ph.D. in 1917. His major field of study was philosophy. After graduating he served as an instructor in the Department of Philosophy at Chicago until 1920....
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Ayres, Clarence Edwin (1891-1972), economics professor
Wendell C. Gordon
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Ayres, Leonard Porter (1879-1946), educator, statistician, and economist
Mary B. Stavish
Ayres, Leonard Porter (15 September 1879–29 October 1946), educator, statistician, and economist, was born in Niantic, Connecticut, the son of Milan Church Ayres and Georgiana Gall. His father, a clergyman, author, and journalist, was editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser. The family moved to Newton Highlands, Massachusetts, where Leonard received his early education in public schools. An avid bicycle racer, he participated in national matches as a young man. After receiving his Ph.B. degree from Boston University in 1902, he taught school in Puerto Rico, rising rapidly to become general superintendent of the island’s schools and chief of the Education Department’s Statistics Division in 1906. Returning to the states, he moved to New York City and joined the Russell Sage Foundation in 1908 to conduct investigations of the health and education of schoolchildren under the direction of ...
Article
Barnes, Albert Coombs (1872-1951), collector, educator, and entrepreneur
Carol Eaton Soltis
Barnes, Albert Coombs (02 January 1872–24 July 1951), collector, educator, and entrepreneur, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of John Jesse Barnes, a butcher, and Lydia A. Schafer. Barnes’s father lost his right arm in the Civil War, and his ability to support his family proved sporadic. However, Albert’s mother, to whom he was devoted, was hardworking and resourceful. Among his most vivid childhood memories were the exuberant black religious revivals and camp meetings he attended with his devout Methodist parents. Accepted at the academically demanding Central High School, which awarded bachelor’s degrees, his early interest in art was stimulated by his friendship with the future artist ...
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Barnes, Albert Coombs (1872-1951)
Maker: Carl Van Vechten
In
Albert C. Barnes Photograph by Carl Van Vechten, 1940. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LOT 12735, no. 102 P&P).
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Bedaux, Charles Eugene (1886-1944), scientific manager, entrepreneur, and fascist collaborator
Steven Kreis
Bedaux, Charles Eugene (10 October 1886–18 February 1944), scientific manager, entrepreneur, and fascist collaborator, was born in Charenton-le-Pont, France, a suburb of Paris, the son of Charles Emile Bedaux, a railroad engineer, and Marie Eulalie, a dressmaker. Bedaux spent his first twenty years on the streets of Paris, doing odd jobs and usually avoiding school. He attended the Lycée Louis LeGrand in Paris but did not receive a regular degree. In 1906 he left Paris to seek his fortune across the Atlantic. In the United States Bedaux worked as a dishwasher, an insurance salesman, and a sandhog with the crews building the Hudson River tunnels. He also had a stint at the New Jersey Worsted Mills in Hoboken. He became a naturalized citizen in 1908....
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Bedaux, Charles Eugene (1886-1944)
In
Charles E. Bedaux. Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-107447).
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Bennett, John Cook (1804-1867), physician, religious leader, and entrepreneur
Michael Quinn
Bennett, John Cook (03 August 1804–05 August 1867), physician, religious leader, and entrepreneur, was born in Fair Haven, Bristol County, Massachusetts, the son of John Bennett, a shipowner, and Abigail Cook. At his father’s death in 1817, he moved with his mother to Ohio to stay with relatives. In 1825, after a three-year apprenticeship with a physician and an oral examination by an Ohio medical society, Bennett received his M.D. and a license to practice. That year he married Mary Barker; they had three children. There is no evidence supporting his claim to have attended Ohio University or McGill College in Montreal; he did, however, become a Freemason in 1826....
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Benton, William (1900-1973), advertising executive, educator, and politician
J. Garry Clifford
Benton, William (01 April 1900–18 March 1973), advertising executive, educator, and politician, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Charles Benton, a Congregationalist clergyman and professor of romance languages, and Elma Hixson, a schoolteacher. After brief military service in World War I, Benton attended Yale University and graduated in 1921. In 1928 he was married to Helen Hemingway. They had four children....
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Bissell, Richard Mervin, Jr. (1909-1994), economics professor and government administrator
Jacqueline McGlade
Bissell, Richard Mervin, Jr. (18 September 1909–07 February 1994), economics professor and government administrator, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Richard Bissell, a wealthy insurance executive, and Marie Truesdel. As a young man, Bissell studied at elite educational institutions, including Groton School; Yale University, where he received a B.A. in 1932; and the London School of Economics, where he began his postgraduate work. In 1933 he returned to Yale as an instructor and was promoted to assistant professor before earning his Ph.D. in economics in 1939. In 1940 he married Ann Cornelia Bushnell; they had five children. Described by one friend as “desperately shy,” Bissell seemed destined in 1941 to remain a university educator and scholar. However, the outbreak of World War II dramatically changed his life, as he left Yale to become a member of ...
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Callender, Guy Stevens (1865-1915), economist and historian
Roland M. Baumann
Callender, Guy Stevens (09 November 1865–08 August 1915), economist and historian, was born in Hartsgrove, Ohio, the son of Robert Foster Callender and Lois Winslow. The family moved to the Western Reserve (in present-day northeastern Ohio) when Callender was a child. At an early age he demonstrated that he had an active mind, intellectual curiosity, and a strong physical constitution; these attributes, along with his being an avid reader of books, led him at the age of fifteen to teach in the district schools of Ashtabula County. Using his savings from several winters of teaching and his summer earnings made working on the family farm, Callender succeeded in paying for college preparatory courses at New Lyme Institute, South New Lyme, Ohio....
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Dew, Thomas Roderick (1802-1846), economist and educator
William J. Barber
Dew, Thomas Roderick (05 December 1802–06 August 1846), economist and educator, was born in King and Queen County, Virginia, the son of Thomas Dew, a plantation owner, and Lucy E. Gatewood. He matriculated at the College of William and Mary and received an A.B. in 1820. In October 1826 he was appointed professor of political law at William and Mary, which required him to deliver lectures on political economy, government, and history. A decade later he became president of the college. Dew was reputed to have been an inspiring teacher and an effective academic administrator. Enrollments at William and Mary were strengthened under his leadership....
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Dewing, Arthur Stone (1880-1971), economics professor and author
Kate Rousmaniere
Dewing, Arthur Stone (16 April 1880–20 January 1971), economics professor and author, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of Charles Hamlet Dewing, a financial investor, and Eliza Dewing. From an early age he was burdened by eye troubles and was so afflicted with dyslexia that he did not learn to read until age twelve. A series of failed financial speculations by his father left the family all but destitute and forced his mother to take in boarders to maintain the family income. Dewing later attributed his mother’s financial resourcefulness to his own interest in economics....
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Douglas, Paul Howard (26 March 1892–24 September 1976), economist, educator, and U.S. senator
Edward L. Schapsmeier
Douglas, Paul Howard (26 March 1892–24 September 1976), economist, educator, and U.S. senator, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, the son of James Howard Douglas and Annie Smith. The latter, a laborer, died when Paul was four. His father remarried but soon became an alcoholic and abandoned his wife and son. Douglas worked his way through Bowdoin College, from which he received a B.A. in 1913, and won a scholarship to Columbia University, where he earned an M.A. in 1915 and a Ph.D. in economics in 1921....
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Drucker, Peter Ferdinand (19 November 1909–11 November 2005), author, professor, and management consultant
Alan Deutschman
Drucker, Peter Ferdinand (19 November 1909–11 November 2005), author, professor, and management consultant, was born in Vienna, the elder of two sons of Adolph Drucker, an economist and lawyer who worked as a senior official in Austria-Hungary’s Ministry of Economics, and Caroline Drucker, who had studied medicine. His parents were born Jewish but raised their family as Protestants. They lived in a suburban house, designed by a prominent local architect, that had views of vineyards and the Vienna Woods. Drucker received an informal education at his parents’ frequent dinner parties, which were attended by economists, doctors, mathematicians, philosophers, artists, and musicians (his grandmother had played piano with the Vienna Philharmonic). When Drucker was eight years old, his father introduced him to Sigmund Freud at a Vienna restaurant....
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Eckstein, Otto (1927-1984), economist, educator, and author
Francesco L. Nepa
Eckstein, Otto (01 August 1927–22 March 1984), economist, educator, and author, was born in Ulm, Germany, the son of Hugo Eckstein, a businessman, and Hedwig Pressburger. After attending schools in Germany and England, Eckstein completed his elementary schooling in New York City following his family’s move to the United States in 1939. He gained his U.S. citizenship in 1945, one year before he graduated from high school....
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Feis, Herbert (1893-1972), economist and historian
Justus Doenecke
Feis, Herbert (07 June 1893–02 March 1972), economist and historian, was born in New York City, the son of Louis Jacob Feis, a salesman, and Louisa Waterman. Growing up in lower–middle class surroundings, Feis first worked for a newspaper and attended evening sessions at the City College of New York. He then enrolled in Harvard University, receiving his B.A. magna cum laude in 1916. In 1918 he was commissioned a lieutenant, junior grade, in the U.S. Navy, serving off the British Isles and training crews off the New England coast....
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Filson, John (10 December 1753?–01 October 1788), author, historian, and land surveyor
Charles C. Hay
Filson, John (10 December 1753?–01 October 1788), author, historian, and land surveyor, was born in East Fallowfield Township near Brandywine Creek in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of Davison Filson and Eleanor Clarke, farmers. After attending common schools in the vicinity of his birthplace, Filson studied Greek, Latin, mathematics, and surveying at West Nottingham Academy in Colora, Maryland. He inherited part of a modest estate following his father’s death in 1776, but, eschewing life on the farm, he taught school and surveyed lands in the area during the American Revolution....
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Foster, William Trufant (1879-1950), educator and economist
Robert W. Dimand
Foster, William Trufant (18 January 1879–08 October 1950), educator and economist, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of William Henry Foster, formerly employed by a merchant but an invalid since the Civil War, and Sarah J. Trufant. His father’s early death left the family poorly provided for, and Foster worked his way through Roxbury High School and Harvard University, where he was first in his class, receiving his B.A., magna cum laude, in 1901. After teaching as an instructor in English at Bates College in his mother’s hometown, Lewiston, Maine, from 1901 to 1903 Foster returned to Harvard for an A.M. in English (1904) and became an instructor in English and argumentation at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. On Christmas Day, 1905, he married Bessie Lucille Russell; they had four children....
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Hadley, Arthur Twining (1856-1930), economist and university president
Audrey B. Davidson and Robert B. Ekelund
Hadley, Arthur Twining (23 April 1856–06 March 1930), economist and university president, was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of James Hadley and Anne Twining. From his earliest years, Hadley’s education was shaped by his father, a professor of Greek at Yale University. Early academic pursuits included mathematics, science, and literature, and Hadley had learned German by the age of twelve. Hadley enrolled at Yale in 1872 at the age of sixteen, the same year his father died. He began postgraduate work in 1877 at Yale, which was followed by two years in Europe. Hadley studied for a year and a half at the University of Berlin, where he focused on political economy under the guidance of Adolf Wagner....
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Hamilton, Earl Jefferson (1899-1989), economic historian, editor, and educator
Ross B. Emmett
Hamilton, Earl Jefferson (17 May 1899–07 May 1989), economic historian, editor, and educator, was born in Houlka, Mississippi, the son of Joseph William Hamilton and Frances Regina Anne Williams. After graduating from Mississippi State University in 1920 with honors, Hamilton studied at the University of Texas, where he received an M.A. in 1924. He then went to Harvard University, where he completed both an A.M. (1926) and a Ph.D. (1929) in economics. In 1923 he married Gladys Olive Dallas; they had one child....
