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Daniel H. Saks: In memoriam
Daniel H. Saks: In Memoriam
DANIEL H. SAKS 1943-1986
DAN SAKS was born on January 28, 1943 in Cleveland, Ohio. The second son of a family with a reverential belief in the importance of education, Dan was given the opportunity to attend the prestigious Hawken School and the Andover Academy. After his graduation from Harvard (with honors) in lY6S. he studied at the London School of Economics, and subsequently earned his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton in 1973. To Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson becoming an economist was a fulfillment of his Darwinian 317
destiny. To Dan Saks by contrast, economics was a vehicle for understanding the intellectual and social forces of the day. A man with variegated interests and Renaissance training, he often ventured beyond the narrow confines of his discipline. He followed many trails whenever he felt that the countryside looked interesting and the local inhabitants seemed friendly. At Harvard, he acquired an interest in urban problems. At Princeton, under the influence of Al Rees and Orley Ashenfelter, he studied labor economics. In later life, despite excursions into
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other areas, he still thought of himself primarily as a labor economist. Dan’s first job was a joint appointment in Urban Affairs and Economics at Michigan State University. He arrived in East Lansing with a new wife and an old Porsche. No longer privileged to enjoy the life of bachelorhood, he acquired a house, bought a station wagon and sold his Porsche. (Selling that car was the only decision in his life he ever admitted regretting.) Though he later dropped his affiliation with Urban Affairs, it was a seminar in that department that led to his fascination with the economics of education - a fascination that would intrigue him for the rest of his life. His research in the economics of resource allocation in classrooms, and in educational finance changed the way researchers and policy makers now think about problems in these areas. As his reputation grew, the demand for his talents escalated. Over a decade, he shared those talents with the National Bureau of Economic Research, Princeton, the Technion (Israel’s Institute of Technology), the University of Wisconsin, and Brookings. In 1979-1980 he was Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers: from there he went to be Executive Director of the National Commission for Employment Policy. In 1982 he resigned from Michigan State to accept an appointment in Economics at the Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt. As a colleague and teacher Dan Saks was without peer. Never the monk, he loved to work on research problems with others, and his work was frequently
coauthored. All of his coauthors knew him as a scholar who was always pushing for more, working for improvement, the new approach, the better data set, the more lucid explanation. At one time or another all of these people were driven to distraction by his relentless striving for improvement. He loved working with students, and was happiest working in a university where this was possible. In the age of the mass lecture and the computer-scored multiple choice examination, he forced his undergraduate students to submit to essay tests, to write term papers, and to suffer through countless revisions of these papers. (Incidently. this experience stimulated him to coauthor an award winning book. So You Have to Write an Economics Term Puper .) Inspired by Joseph Schwab’s genius in the Socratic method, he eventually came to be a master practitioner of this art. It was in character that, as well as teaching classes in the economics of education, he chose to teach the principles course to undergraduates while at Vanderbilt. Dan Saks was the perfect dinner companion. He was a person of class, with a gourmet’s palate for food and drink, and an insatiable appetite for lively repartee. His marvelous wit was grounded in human frailty and tinged with a taste for the absurdity of life. Dan Saks died on 14 January 1986 at the age of 42. This volume is dedicated to his memory. BKKON W. BROWN Michigan State University East Lansing
DANIEL H. SAKS 1943-1986
DAN SAKS was born on January 28, 1943 in Cleveland, Ohio. The second son of a family with a reverential belief in the importance of education, Dan was given the opportunity to attend the prestigious Hawken School and the Andover Academy. After his graduation from Harvard (with honors) in lY6S. he studied at the London School of Economics, and subsequently earned his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton in 1973. To Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson becoming an economist was a fulfillment of his Darwinian 317
destiny. To Dan Saks by contrast, economics was a vehicle for understanding the intellectual and social forces of the day. A man with variegated interests and Renaissance training, he often ventured beyond the narrow confines of his discipline. He followed many trails whenever he felt that the countryside looked interesting and the local inhabitants seemed friendly. At Harvard, he acquired an interest in urban problems. At Princeton, under the influence of Al Rees and Orley Ashenfelter, he studied labor economics. In later life, despite excursions into
318
Economics of Education Review
other areas, he still thought of himself primarily as a labor economist. Dan’s first job was a joint appointment in Urban Affairs and Economics at Michigan State University. He arrived in East Lansing with a new wife and an old Porsche. No longer privileged to enjoy the life of bachelorhood, he acquired a house, bought a station wagon and sold his Porsche. (Selling that car was the only decision in his life he ever admitted regretting.) Though he later dropped his affiliation with Urban Affairs, it was a seminar in that department that led to his fascination with the economics of education - a fascination that would intrigue him for the rest of his life. His research in the economics of resource allocation in classrooms, and in educational finance changed the way researchers and policy makers now think about problems in these areas. As his reputation grew, the demand for his talents escalated. Over a decade, he shared those talents with the National Bureau of Economic Research, Princeton, the Technion (Israel’s Institute of Technology), the University of Wisconsin, and Brookings. In 1979-1980 he was Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers: from there he went to be Executive Director of the National Commission for Employment Policy. In 1982 he resigned from Michigan State to accept an appointment in Economics at the Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt. As a colleague and teacher Dan Saks was without peer. Never the monk, he loved to work on research problems with others, and his work was frequently
coauthored. All of his coauthors knew him as a scholar who was always pushing for more, working for improvement, the new approach, the better data set, the more lucid explanation. At one time or another all of these people were driven to distraction by his relentless striving for improvement. He loved working with students, and was happiest working in a university where this was possible. In the age of the mass lecture and the computer-scored multiple choice examination, he forced his undergraduate students to submit to essay tests, to write term papers, and to suffer through countless revisions of these papers. (Incidently. this experience stimulated him to coauthor an award winning book. So You Have to Write an Economics Term Puper .) Inspired by Joseph Schwab’s genius in the Socratic method, he eventually came to be a master practitioner of this art. It was in character that, as well as teaching classes in the economics of education, he chose to teach the principles course to undergraduates while at Vanderbilt. Dan Saks was the perfect dinner companion. He was a person of class, with a gourmet’s palate for food and drink, and an insatiable appetite for lively repartee. His marvelous wit was grounded in human frailty and tinged with a taste for the absurdity of life. Dan Saks died on 14 January 1986 at the age of 42. This volume is dedicated to his memory. BKKON W. BROWN Michigan State University East Lansing