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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Article
Ayres, Clarence Edwin (1891-1972), economics professor
Wendell C. Gordon
Article
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
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 ...
Article
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....
Article
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....
Article
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....
Article
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....
Article
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....
Article
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....
Article
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....
Article
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....
Article
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....
Article
Harris, Abram Lincoln, Jr. (1899-1963), economist, author, and educator
Francesco L. Nepa
Harris, Abram Lincoln, Jr. (17 January 1899–16 November 1963), economist, author, and educator, was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Abram Lincoln Harris, a butcher, and Mary Elizabeth Lee, both descendants of slaves freed before the Civil War. After completing his secondary education in the public schools of Richmond, Harris enrolled at Virginia Union University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1922. In 1924 he received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Pittsburgh....
Article
Harris, Seymour Edwin (1897-1974), economist, educator, and author
Francesco L. Nepa
Harris, Seymour Edwin (08 September 1897–27 October 1974), economist, educator, and author, was born in New York City, the son of Henry Harris and Augusta Kulick. After graduating from high school, Harris entered Harvard University, from which he earned his B.A. in 1920. For the next two years, he taught at Princeton University, then he returned to Harvard in 1922 as a graduate student and an instructor in economics. In 1923 he married Ruth Black; they had no children. He received his Ph.D. in 1926, and his doctoral dissertation won him the David A. Wells Prize for 1927. In that same year, he advanced from instructor to lecturer within the Harvard faculty....
Article
Harsanyi, John Charles (1920-2000), theoretical economist, philosopher, and Nobel Prize winner in economics
Bernhard von Stengel
Harsanyi, John Charles (29 May 1920–09 August 2000), theoretical economist, philosopher, and Nobel Prize winner in economics, was born in Budapest, Hungary, the only child of Charles and Alice Gambos Harsanyi, the owners of a pharmacy. His name in Hungarian was Harsányi János Károly. His parents converted to Catholicism from Judaism, and John was raised accordingly. Harsanyi attended the Lutheran Gymnasium in Budapest. An earlier alumnus of this prestigious high school was ...
Article
Haynes, Williams (1886-1970), publisher, historian, and chemical economist
Robert M. Hawthorne
Haynes, Williams (29 July 1886–16 November 1970), publisher, historian, and chemical economist, was born Nathan Gallup Williams Haynes in Detroit, Michigan, the son of David Oliphant Haynes, owner and operator of a publishing company, and Helene Dunham Williams. He spent some time finding what he wanted to do with his life. After six months in his early twenties as a reporter for the ...
Article
Hoover, Calvin Bryce (1897-1974), economist and educator
Leonard Silk
Hoover, Calvin Bryce (14 April 1897–23 June 1974), economist and educator, was born in the village of Berwick, Illinois, the son of John Calvin Hoover, a railroad worker and part-time farmer, and Margaret Delilah Roadcap. Hoover grew up poor. His father was a railroad section gang foreman, and he himself worked as a “gandy dancer” in his father’s gang during summer vacations, weekends, and holidays. He also helped his father farm the rented land that he was sharecropping. He never forgot what it was like to be poor. In his memoirs, he tells of going down to the railroad station to watch the trains come in wearing old clothes and carrying a rifle with a broken stock held together by twine and having a passenger shout at him, “Shades of ...
Article
James, Edmund Janes (1855-1925), political economist and university president
Winton U. Solberg
James, Edmund Janes (21 May 1855–17 June 1925), political economist and university president, was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, the son of Colin Dew James, a Methodist minister and presiding elder, and Amanda Keziah Casad. In 1863 the family removed to Normal, Illinois. James entered the classical department of Northwestern University in 1873, remaining two terms, then spent six months with a survey crew on the Great Lakes, after which he continued with the classics at Harvard College for a year. Discontent with his collegiate fare, he left in 1875 for Germany, where he studied historical economics under Johannes Conrad at the University of Halle....
Article
Johnson, Alvin Saunders (1874-1971), economist, educator, and journalist
James M. Wallace
Johnson, Alvin Saunders (18 December 1874–07 June 1971), economist, educator, and journalist, was born near Homer, Dakota County, Nebraska, the son of John Johnson and Edel Maria Katrina Bille, farmers. Johnson’s father emigrated from Denmark to the United States in 1849 with the name Jens Jensen Deyrup; the immigration officer gave him the name John Johnson. Johnson’s mother emigrated from Denmark in 1867. By the time she arrived in Nebraska, John had fought in the Civil War and outlived two other wives, who had left him with five children. Johnson’s parents subsequently had three more children....
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Johnson, Alvin Saunders (1874-1971)
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Alvin Johnson Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-116973 ).
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