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[The following was read by Warren Samuels at the History of Economics 
Society meeting this past weekend when Todd Lowry was named a Distinguished 
Fellow of the Society. - - RBE] 
 
S. TODD LOWRY, DISTINGUISHED FELLOW  
OF THE HISTORY OF ECONOMICS SOCIETY 
 
I have known a relatively small number of truly brilliant people, some of 
them economists; some are historians of economic thought.  I have enormous 
respect for them.  Only one of them, however, elicits awe.  That is Stanley 
Todd Lowry.   
 
I am truly in awe of Todd.  
 
I have known Todd for many years.  I have solicited and published his work. 
 He has commissioned and published a number of my book reviews in History 
of Political Economy.  We, with our wives, are good friends; I am proud to 
be a friend of this humble and decent man and this wonderful scholar.  I 
not only remain in awe of Todd but my awe has grown over the years. 
 
Often when we are together we go on walks.  One typical pattern is for me 
to raise a topic and then listen, in awe, to Todd expostulate, at length 
and with finely drawn subtlety and nuance, on that topic. 
 
Spencer Pack has written an essay on Todd for Historians of Economics and 
Economic Thought:  The Construction of Disciplinary Memory, edited by Steve 
Medema and me and to be published later this year by Routledge.  Spencer 
commences with Todd's emphasis on economics as an administrative science 
and the cognate methodological issues.  He then examines, in turn, Todd's 
work in resource and environmental economics, especially the economics of 
forestry; his work in legal history and theory; ancient Greek economic 
thought, especially Xenophon, Plato, democracy and justice, Aristotle, and 
other aspects of pre-Classical economic thought.  He has made striking 
contributions in each of these areas, not least in the interpretation of 
Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics. 
 
Todd has a doctorate in economics.  He also has a law degree.  He works in 
the original Greek.  He has mastered not only the philosophy of economics 
but the philosophy of which economic thought is a part. 
 
Even beyond his research and writing -- though certainly inclusive of these 
activities -- Todd, along with a few others, such as Barry Gordon, has 
engaged in efforts to keep alive the study of ancient, medieval, and later 
pre-Classical economic thought. 
 
As if this were not enough, his research has been conducted and his 
writings undertaken by a man who is legally blind.  If this is not awesome, 
then nothing is; if this does not send shivers up your spine, then nothing 
will.  No one who was present when Todd gave his Presidential Address to 
this Society will forget the perfect delivery of a brilliant paper given 
from memory and not read.  Todd himself likely does not, until now, know 
the looks of awe I have sent his way on our walks; they are beyond his 
limited range of vision.  Todd has set an example for all those with 
debilitating illnesses, of how to maximize within constraints, and how to 
do so with grace and humor. 
 
Todd has been blessed to have Faye as his wife and helpmate.  She is a dear 
woman and may be almost as talented as her husband. 
 
Todd Lowry has clearly earned the distinction of being a Distinguished 
Fellow.  Indeed, he has left the rest of us in his wake. 
 
Warren Samuels 
 
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