-Caveat Lector- This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Eli Ginzberg, 91, Columbia Economist, Is Dead December 16, 2002 By ROBERT F. WORTH Eli Ginzberg, an economist who taught at Columbia University for more than six decades, advised eight American presidents and led pioneering research efforts in employment and health care, died Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 91. Dr. Ginzberg first showed his bent for applied economics during World War II, when he moved from his home in New York to Washington and served the federal government in a variety of positions. He built on that experience for decades, supervising studies designed to reduce the waste of manpower, publishing many books and articles and later advising governments and corporations. "What Eli had was an enormous command of the facts and a remarkably down-to-earth practical sense of what was possible, politically and economically," said Robert M. Solow, who received a Nobel in economics in 1987. "He was sort of the guardian of common sense in the areas of manpower problems and health care." As a consultant to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on military personnel during the war, Dr. Ginzberg wrote a study that helped lead to the removal of 250,000 civilians from the Army payroll and the more efficient deployment of soldiers. He also worked in the government's hospital division and the surgeon general's office in the War Department, where he coordinated the extensive medical preparations for the D-Day invasion of France in 1944. He was awarded the medal for Exceptional Civilian Service from the War Department in 1946. After the war, he returned to teaching, and he served as director of staff studies at the National Manpower Council from 1952 until 1961. He wrote about the importance of integrating women and racial minorities into the work force, and in the early 1950's he played a role in the desegregation of the United States Army as an aide to Secretary of the Army Frank Pace Jr. He also applied his knowledge of economics to the health care system, writing books and dozens of articles for publications like The New England Journal of Medicine and The Journal of the American Medical Association. Eli Ginzberg was born on April 30, 1911, to Louis and Adele Ginzberg in New York City, where he grew up just a few blocks from Columbia University. His father, a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, was one of the foremost Talmudic scholars of the 20th century. Their home was a gathering place for renowned scholars, and that atmosphere helped inspire his own ambitions, Dr. Ginzberg later wrote. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School and Columbia University, where he stayed on to earn his doctorate in economics in 1934 and joined the faculty in 1935. In that year, with the country in the grip of the Depression, he completed a yearlong tour of 40 American states. His observations formed the basis for a set of recommendations on reforming the regulatory and monetary systems, published in 1939 as "The Illusion of Economic Stability." After the war, he was appointed by President Harry S. Truman to represent the United States at a conference in May 1946 on victims of German actions who could not be repatriated. He also continued to provide advice to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who became president of Columbia in 1948. In 1950, Dr. Ginzberg was appointed to the staff of the Conservation of Human Resources Project at Columbia's Graduate School of Business, a research effort founded by General Eisenhower that involved the federal government, business groups, foundations and trade unions. Dr. Ginzberg was a co-author of its first major study, "The Uneducated," which argued for a greater federal role in education. In the early 1950's, Dr. Ginzberg was sent to Europe by the Pentagon to help break the resistance of the Army senior staff to desegregation. His first experience with Army segregation had come during the war, when he discovered a group of black and white wounded soldiers being treated in separate hospital wards in South Carolina. He ordered that the wards be integrated, leading to a complaint from the state's governor. He and his colleagues at the Conservation of Human Resources Project later wrote about the problems of the segregated Army in a three-volume study, "The Ineffective Soldier: Lessons for Management and the Nation." Dr. Ginzberg continued to advise state and federal governments on health issues and advised presidents through Jimmy Carter. He also contributed many books on subjects like the supply of doctors and managed care, which he viewed skeptically. Dr. Ginzberg was married in 1946 to Ruth Szold, who was an editor at the Conservation of Human Resources Project. In 1974, he helped found the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, a nonprofit group dedicated to testing rigorously public policy ideas on subjects like welfare and the reintegration of former prison inmates. Like his parents, Dr. Ginzberg was active in Jewish causes, volunteering for the United Jewish Committee and serving as a member of the board of governors of Hebrew University in Jerusalem in the 1950's. The first of his two memoirs, "My Brother's Keeper," published in 1989, deals mostly with his family and his Jewish heritage. The second, "The Eye of Illusion," published in 1993, is mostly about his professional career. Dr. Ginzberg's wife died in 1995. He is survived by his three children, Jeremy, of Portland, Ore.; Abigail, of Albany, Calif.; and Rachel, of Philadelphia, and three grandchildren. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/16/obituaries/16GINZ.html?ex=1041083654&ei=1&en=80de038cffe9684f HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
