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[The following announcement was read by John Davis at the History of 
Economics Society meeting, July 2002] 
 
"Of all the things I've done with the Society over the last two years, this 
gives me the greatest pleasure and is the greatest honor. I am happy to 
announce that the 2002 Distinguished Fellow of the History of Economics 
Society is Bill Barber. 
 
I will read from Craufurd Goodwin's letter nominating Bill: 
 
"He grew up in Abilene, Kansas, and went to Harvard on a scholarship in 
1942. He departed soon after for wartime service, which included among 
other things participation in the Battle of the Bulge (where he suffered 
frostbite that still troubles him).  He returned to Harvard in 1946 as a 
history major. He was elected to a Rhodes Scholarship and studied 
philosophy, politics, and economics at Balliol College, Oxford and 
ultimately received a Ph.D. for a dissertation on The Economics of British 
Central Africa (OUP, 1961). 
 
Bill joined the faculty of Wesleyan University in 1957 and spent his entire 
career there, including a period as acting president. He began teaching the 
history of economics in 1957 and this led to his concise Penguin textbook, 
A History of Economic Thought (1967), which remained in print for decades. 
But Bill's career was more in development studies than in history. This 
included a period as a collaborator of Gunnar Myrdal in preparation of the 
Asian Drama.   
 
Bill did not enter full-tilt into the history of economic thought until the 
1970s and for this reason he was not involved in the very earliest days of 
HOPE and the HES. But he came along soon after. His first major monograph 
in the field was British Economic Thought and India, 1600-1858 (Clarendon, 
1975). I remember being deeply impressed by the quality of the work he was 
doing on this topic and as a result was led to seek him out to join a team 
I was asked to put together in the 1970s for the Brookings Institution on 
the history of the role of the economist in American government. In 
addition to the sections of the Brookings' books on wage price and energy 
policy that Bill completed, he continued to work on various topics in 
American economic thought for most of the rest of his career, including (to 
mention books only) nearly definitive studies of economics in the Hoover 
and Roosevelt administrations (From New Era to New Deal and Design within 
Disorder; both CUP) and the best thing yet done on economics in American 
higher education (Breaking the Academic Mould [Wesleyan, 1988]) and most 
recently The Works of Irving Fisher in 14 volumes (Pickering and Chatto). 
 
Bill has been closely involved with the Society since the 1970s on various 
committees and serving a term as president. Even in retirement he has 
attended almost all the meetings. He has been a teacher of students from 
Wesleyan who have come into our midst, has assisted our publication efforts 
as referee and constructive critic, and in my view has served the best 
possible role model for people in the field. 
 
I have marveled at Bill's qualities ever since I first met him in the early 
1970s. He is extremely smart, exceedingly widely read, and energetic enough 
to put us all to shame. On top of it he is the nicest of men who has done 
as much for our field and for the society as anyone I can think of. I am 
confident that his is the perfect candidate for the distinguished fellow. 
 
Yours sincerely, 
Craufurd D. Goodwin 
 
 
 
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