Charles J. Hitch (January 9, 1910 – September 11, 1995) was an American economist and

Assistant Secretary of Defense Assistant Secretary of Defense is a title used for many high-level executive positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense within the U.S. Department of Defense. The Assistant Secretary of Defense title is junior to Under Secretary of Defe ...

from 1961 to 1965. He later served as vice chancellor (1965–1967) and president (1967–1975) of the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...

and president of

Resources for the Future Resources for the Future (RFF) is an American nonprofit organization, founded in 1952 that conducts independent research into environmental, energy, and natural resource issues, primarily via economics and other social sciences. Headquartered in ...

(1975-1978). Hitch was born in Boonville, Missouri to Arthur M. Hitch and Bertha Johnston. His brother was Thomas Kemper Hitch. He was educated at

Kemper Military School Kemper Military School & College was a private military school located in Boonville, Missouri. Founded in 1844, Kemper filed for bankruptcy and closed in 2002. The school's motto was "Nunquam Non Paratus" (Never Not Prepared). The 46-acre camp ...

before leaving for the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

, where he became a member of the

Delta Chi Delta Chi () is an international Greek letter collegiate social fraternity formed on October 13, 1890, at Cornell University, initially as a professional fraternity for law students. On April 30, 1922, Delta Chi became a general membership soc ...

fraternity and received a BA in economics in 1931. After pursuing graduate studies at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

during the 1931–1932 academic year, he received a Rhodes Scholarship to

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

, where he received a second bachelor's degree in 1935 and the Oxbridge MA in 1938. That year, he became the first Rhodes Scholar to join the university's faculty as a fellow of

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Hitch served as a staff economist under W. Averell Harriman during his special envoyship to Europe before joining the

War Production Board The War Production Board (WPB) was an agency of the United States government that supervised war production during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt established it in January 1942, with Executive Order 9024. The WPB replaced the Su ...

. He later served in the Office of Strategic Services as an officer of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

and was discharged at the rank of

first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a ...

in 1945. Between 1948 and 1961, he was head of Rand Corporation's Economics Division in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing t ...

. While at Rand, he co-authored with

Roland McKean Roland Neely McKean (October 30, 1917 – April 15, 1993) is an American economist. He received his A.B. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Chicago. From 1951 to 1963, he was a research economist at the RAND Corporation, wh ...

''The

Economics of Defense The economics of defense or defense economics is a subfield of economics, an application of the economic theory to the issues of military defense. It is a relatively new field. An early specialized work in the field is the RAND Corporation report ' ...

in the

Nuclear Age The Atomic Age, also known as the Atomic Era, is the period of history following the detonation of the first nuclear weapon, The Gadget at the ''Trinity'' test in New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, during World War II. Although nuclear chain reacti ...

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

, 1960), described by the New York Times as the 'bible' for defense budgeting. He was awarded the

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It con ...

medal in 1975. As the DOD's comptroller, he was directed by Secretary Robert McNamara to produce a long-term, program-oriented Defense budget that became

USDOD The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secur ...

Planning, Programming and Budgeting System Output budgeting is a wide-ranging management technique introduced into the United States in the mid-1960s by Robert S. McNamara's collaborator Charles J. Hitch, not always with ready cooperation with the administrators and based on the industrial ...

(PPBS). He was posthumously elected to the 2002 class of

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

s of the

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is an international society for practitioners in the fields of operations research (O.R.), management science, and analytics. It was established in 1995 with the merger o ...

References

Charles J. Hitch
at the University of California digital archives

by

Alain C. Enthoven Alain C. Enthoven (born September 10, 1930) is an American economist. He was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1965, and from 1965 to 1969, he was the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis. Currently, he is Marriner ...

External links

Biography of Charles Hitch
from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences 1910 births 1995 deaths University of Arizona alumni Harvard University alumni American Rhodes Scholars University of California regents Presidents of the University of California System Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford RAND Corporation people Fellows of the Econometric Society Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences 20th-century American academics {{US-academic-administrator-1910s-stub