BY ALEX SHASHKEVICH
Nobel Prize-winning Stanford economist Kenneth Arrow died in his
home in Palo Alto on Tuesday morning. He was 95.
Arrow, the Joan Kenney Professor of Economics and Professor of
Operations Research, Emeritus, was a world-renowned scholar in the fields of economic
theory and research operations. In addition to the Nobel Prize, he was awarded the National Medal of
Science in 2004, among numerous other awards.
“Kenneth Arrow was one of the greatest economists,” said John
Shoven, a professor of economics at Stanford. “But he was also humble, warm and
a great friend to all of us at Stanford.”
Arrow’s pioneering contributions to general equilibrium theory and
welfare theory led him to become the youngest person to date to win the Nobel
Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which he received in 1972 together with
British economist Sir John Hicks.
One of Arrow’s most influential works was his 1951 book, “Social
Choice and Individual Values,” which publicized what would later be known as
“Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem,” which addresses issues of collective
decision-making.
But Arrow’s knowledge and accomplishments extended beyond the
world of economics and statistics, according to his colleagues and family
members. He was interested in a myriad of other subjects, from politics and
music to mathematics and Chinese Art.
“He was as gentle as he was brilliant,” said Arrow’s nephew,
Lawrence Summers, former Treasury Secretary and former president of Harvard
University. “He was always
an inspiration to me.”
David Arrow recalled a
line from “Hamlet” when talking about his father: “He was a great human being.
He was perfect in everything. I’ll never see the likes of him again.”
“I really think my father
is that kind of man,” David Arrow said. “His intellectual
life and influence is perhaps as profound as any in his field.”
He was also vocal about social issues. In 1988, Arrow, whose
parents were Romanian-Jewish immigrants, wrote an open letter to then Israeli
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, challenging Shamir’s stance on an “undivided
land of Israel” and pleading for an end to violence between Israelis and
Palestinians. He also supported the Free South Africa Fund, which supported black
South Africans’ efforts for freedom while challenging Stanford to rethink its
ties with South African companies. He was a co-author of the “Economists’ Statement on Climate Change,” issued
in 1997 and signed by more than 2,400 U.S. economists, detailing the hazards of
global warming.
Originally from New York
City, Arrow earned a bachelor’s degree from the City College of New York in
1940, and a master’s degree in mathematics from Columbia University in 1941.
His academic career was interrupted by World War II, and he served as a weather
officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1946.
After the war, he returned to Columbia for his PhD, and spent time
as a research associate and assistant professor at the University of Chicago.
He joined Stanford’s faculty as an assistant professor of economics and
statistics in 1949, and remained there until 1968 when he left to teach at
Harvard University for about 11 years.
But he considered Stanford
home and eventually came back, his son said.
“He was proud to come
back,” Arrow said. “He loved Stanford and the community here.”
Besides his
accomplishments in research, Arrow valued teaching and advising students in his
emeritus position until his last days, according to his son. In fact, at least five of his students also have become Nobel
Prize winners.
Arrow, who became a professor emeritus in 1991, retired with his
wife, Selma, at Stanford, where they lived until moving to a retirement
community in Palo Alto.
“To me, to our family, he was just a very generous, loving, caring
unpretentious man,” Arrow said.
Arrow is survived by his sister Anita Summers, of Philadelphia; sons David, of New York City; and Andrew, of New York City; his daughter-in-law Donna Lynn Champlin, of New York City; and his grandson, Charles Benjamin Arrow, of New York City.
http://news.stanford.edu/2017/02/21/nobel-prize-winner-kenneth-arrow-dies/