I too am shocked and saddened at the news of David's death. I was in New York at the Urban Affairs meetings on March 15-17, and Bob Beauregard mentioned David was in the hospital waiting for a heart transplant. Today I came in to catch up on my e-mail, and I saw David didn't make it. To add my voice to our collective sorrow, I remember David from numerous URPE activities in the 1970s. Once while he was visiting his family in Berkeley he took time out from his busy schedule to come to my apartment and help me with my dissertation. I was researching the relation between class segementation, spatial patterns of housing and labor markets, and the role of urban transportation in coordinating this system of inequality. David gave me copies of the relevant sections of his own dissertation, which used factor analysis to identify labor market segments, to use for my own work. He also engaged me in a very stimulating discussion about my own research. All this for a graduate student he hardly knew and certainly had no need to spend any time with. The following obituary mentions his contributions to labor and macro economics. Others have mentioned his contribution to feminist economics. I want to add to this already impressive list his contribution to radical urban political economy. His reader, _Problems in Political Economy: An Urban Perspective_, remains one of the most accessible and comprehensive books in the area. It illustrates David's gift for combining rigorous theory and empirical evidence to shed light on crucial policy issues and to unmask the hidden ideology in conservative economics. As I returned from New York, I thought about revising my urban theory class for next fall. I thought about how helpful an updated version of this book would be. I realized how much was lost by David's intellectual journey taking him to fry fish outside the urban arena. Now, I realize how much more we will miss the man himself. Fare thee well, comrade. > > David M. Gordon (1944-1996) > > David Gordon, a leading economist of the left, died >Saturday at the age of fifty-two; he succumbed to congestive >heart failure while awaiting a heart transplant at Columbia >Presbyterian Hospital in New York. At the time of his death >he was Director of the Center for Economic Policy Analysis >and Professor of Economics at the New School for Social >Research. > > Gordon came from a family of economists. His father, >the late Robert Aaron Gordon, was President of the American >Economic Association while his mother, the late Margaret S. >Gordon, was well known for her contributions to the >economics of employment and social welfare policy. His >brother Robert J Gordon is a prominent macroeconomist and >Professor of Economics at Northwestern University. David >Gordon and his family have been referred to as the "Flying >Wallendas of Economics." > > David Gordon is best known for his contributions to the >theory of discrimination and labor market segmentation, his >analysis of the institutions shaping long-term economic >growth, and his trenchant criticisms of conservative >economic policy. His contributions to labor economics, >developed jointly with Richard Edwards and Michael Reich, >challenged the conventional assumption of a single labor >market and argued instead for the recognition of deep >divisions along racial, gender, and class lines. His >macroeconomic research involved theoretical, historical and >econometric analysis of the impact of political and social >as well as economic institutions on long-term investment and >growth. He coined the term "social structure of >accumulation" and is credited with founding the school of >economic thought bearing that name. > > Gordon's Fat and Mean: The Myth of Managerial >"Downsizing" and the Corporate Squeeze of Working Americans, >to be published next month by Martin Kessler Books at The >Free Press, has won lavish pre-publication praise. A review >to appear in The Atlantic suggests that it will be one of >the most influential public-policy books of the decade. The >book documents the long term decline in the pay and living >standards of American workers and what Gordon has termed the >increasingly top-heavy bureaucratic structure of American >corporations. > > As a student, Gordon wrote for the Harvard Crimson, and >following his graduation from Harvard in 1965 he helped >found The Southern Courier, a civil rights newspaper based >in Atlanta. Throughout his life he maintained his interest >in journalism, contributing an economics column to the Los >Angeles Times and numerous articles to The Nation, as well >as making frequent appearances on television and radio >commentary programs. > > Gordon received his doctoral degree in Economics from >Harvard University in 1971, taught briefly at Yale, and >since 1973 has been a professor of economics at the New >School for Social Research. Pointedly eschewing the career >paths of the economics mainstream, he was a founder and >active member of the Union for Radical Political Economics, >a professional organization of leftist economists, as well >as the Center for Democratic Alternatives, and most >recently, the Center for Economic Policy Analysis. Gordon >was particularly beloved by his many doctoral students at >the New School where he was known for his tireless attention >to their research. > > His major publications include Theories of Poverty and >Underemployment (1972), Segmented Work, Divided Workers >(with Richard Edwards and Michael Reich, 1982) and After the >Waste Land: A Democratic Economics for the year 2000 (with >Samuel Bowles and Thomas Weisskopf, 1991). He regarded Fat >and Mean as his legacy, working intensely on it over the >past year as his heart weakened, and delivering it to his >publisher on the day of a medical setback that led to his >final hospitalization. > > Asked four years ago to reflect on his professional >life to that point, Gordon responded: "I feel pleased with >the choices I have made and the work that my collaborators >and I have produced; frustrated by the condescending >complacency of mainstream economists; angered by the greed >and irrationality which dominate the U.S. political economy; >and still hopeful for the prospects of a significant >progressive mobilization towards a more just and humane >society as we turn towards the 21st century." > > A memorial service will be held at the New School for >Social Research on *** at ***. There will be no funeral; >contributions are welcome to the David M. Gordon Memorial >Fund for graduate fellowships at the Center for Economic >Policy Analysis. > > He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Diana Gordon, >Professor and Chair of Political Science at the City >University of New York, his brother Robert, and his extended >family members Timothy and Liam Stokes. Marsh Feldman Phone: 401/792-5953 Community Planning, 204 Rodman Hall FAX: 401/792-4395 The University of Rhode Island Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Kingston, RI 02881-0815
