Richard Samuel Eckaus (April 30, 1926 – September 11, 2022) was an American economist best known for his work in

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped * Photographic development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting * Development hell, when a proje ...

and

international economics International economics is concerned with the effects upon economic activity from international differences in productive resources and consumer preferences and the international institutions that affect them. It seeks to explain the patterns an ...

and his career as a professor and department chair at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT). Born in

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City, Missouri, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by List of cities in Missouri, population and area. The city lies within Jackson County, Missouri, Jackson, Clay County, Missouri, Clay, and Pl ...

, on April 30, 1926, Richard Eckaus was the youngest of three children of Lithuanian immigrants Julius Eckaus (a tailor) and Bessie Eckaus (). Richard graduated from Westport High School before joining the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

. He used a naval scholarship to attend

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

, from which he graduated in 1944 with a degree in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. Eckaus received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in economics from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

(WashU) in 1958, having studied there on the

GI Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, but the te ...

. Eckaus relocated to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Massachusetts, and served as an instructor of economics at the

Babson Institute Babson College is a private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States specializing in entrepreneurship education. Founded in 1919 by Roger Babson, the college was established as the Babson Institute in his Wellesley home and ini ...

from 1951 to 1962 while earing his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

(awarded in 1954) at MIT. He also taught at WashU and

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

. At MIT, Eckaus was mentored by

Paul Rosenstein-Rodan Paul Narcyz Rosenstein-Rodan (1902–1985) was an economist of Jewish origin born in Kraków, who was trained in the Austrian tradition under in Vienna. His early contributions to economics were in pure economic theory – on marginal utility, ...

, a development economist. Eckaus began his career at MIT in 1962, where he taught development economics and served as the head of the economics department from 1986 to 1990. During his time at MIT both as a Ph.D. candidate and as a professor, Eckaus advised the governments of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

on economic systems development. While the Italian government was preparing their 1954 ten-year development plan, Eckaus contributed to their studies of the north–south economic divide. In India, he studied with Louis Lefeber the technical and engineering aspects of economic development during the 1961 Indian Plan era. Eckaus retired in 1996 and died in Boston on September 11, 2022, at age 96. At the time of his death, he held the title of ''

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

'' Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics.

References

External links

Richard Eckaus
obituaries on

Legacy.com Legacy.com is a United States–based website founded in 1998, the world's largest commercial provider of online memorials. The Web site hosts obituaries and memorials for more than 70 percent of all U.S. deaths.Keagle, Lauri Harvey"Death in the ...

Richard Eckaus
research at the

National Bureau of Economic Research The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is an American private nonprofit research organization "committed to undertaking and disseminating unbiased economic research among public policymakers, business professionals, and the academic co ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eckaus, Dick 1926 births 2022 deaths American people of Lithuanian descent People from Kansas City, Missouri People from Boston United States Navy personnel Iowa State University alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Babson College faculty Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty American development economists International economists