Dear all,

I recently learned that S. Todd Lowry, the 1990-1991 HES President, passed
away at 95 earlier this year. You can learn more about his fascinating life
in these short obituaries:

https://columns.wlu.edu/in-memoriam-todd-lowry-professor-of-economics-emeritus/

https://www.thenews-gazette.com/content/todd-lowry

While I never had the opportunity to meet him, I found the following
laudation very enlightening.The late Warren Samuels delivered it at the
2001 History of Economics Society meeting when Todd Lowry was named a
Distinguished Fellow of the Society.



"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. The citation is unavailable on the HES website, which is regrettable:



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"


As a side note, most citations of HES Distinguished Fellows from the 1990s
and early 2000s are missing:
https://historyofeconomics.org/awards-and-honors/distinguished-fellow/

It would be great for our institutional memory if the list could be
completed.


All the best,


Andrej


Andrej Svorenčík

Department of Economics

University of Pennsylvania

https://sites.google.com/view/andrejsvorencik/
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://sites.google.com/view/andrejsvorencik/__;!!IBzWLUs!QsCStaEq7txARHCM-MSBOCiYDpGdiajQ3DFt9Sha4AVcpRNajoiR_EslVh4R49AND60KlREpcgI06ZBK_TjN$>

most recent paper: https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jel.20221667