My dear friend Walt Whitman Rostow left us recently after almost 90 years of life, well over half of which was spent on the world stage. I was stuck in Washington during the “Storm of the Century” when I began to hear the news from mutual friends. As National Security Advisor to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, Walt sat at the table and participated in some of the most momentous days and decisions of the past 50 years.
Walt was also an economist and political thinker of notable achievement. I first encountered his work as a young graduate student fascinated by the dynamic forces which determined economic growth and development. Walt was a pioneer in this area, and his books remain a “must read” for any serious student of the subject. His eloquent exposition of the stages of growth has impacted not only our understanding of the progress of nations, but has broad applicability to the performance of firms, institutions, and even species. He also added cogent analysis of the role of politics, for better or worse, in the process. Walt was focused on the global economy and our interconnectedness decades before it was in vogue and at a time when textbooks and scholars alike were quite comfortable simply assuming away the seemingly inconsequential foreign sector.
Walt never won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics. In my opinion, he should have. During the years he would have been a likely choice, the selections were dominated by those who were extremely enamored with mathematics and those who sought to explain financial markets. The selection can also be somewhat political at times, and Walt’s views haven’t always been of the “proper” ilk. Suffice it to say that his most significant contributions have a much more profound impact on the way we understand and relate to things economic than those of many of the winners.
When I first met Walt about 20 years ago, he was already approaching 70, and I was less than half his age. I was appropriately awed, and he was most gracious and unassuming. We hit it off from the outset. In addition to being very nice to a young upstart, he exhibited a creative and facile mind, a broad sweep of knowledge that was profound, and combined these attributes with vast experience to yield uncommon wisdom. He was soft spoken, but uncompromising. His productivity and clarity of thought continued unabated for the remainder of his life. He wrote about 30 books over the course of his career, including one that is yet to be released.
He seemed to like my intensity and even the somewhat quirky and offbeat way I sometimes apply the premises of economics to gain insights into things. We shared an affinity for taking somewhat abstract concepts into the arena of real life. I remember very well one occasion when Elspeth, his wife and a person of remarkable accomplishment in her own right, introduced me to a woman’s conference group as “Walt’s favorite economist.” I recognized it as nothing more than a kind gesture, but it remains one of my most memorable introductions and perhaps the highest compliment I have ever been paid. (My other memorable introduction was when my friend, Roscoe Harrison, welcomed me to a large minority business conference. He said he knew me very well and that his mamma taught him if he couldn’t say something good about someone, he shouldn’t say anything at all. He then sat down.) In recent years, I have had the privilege of serving with Walt as research fellows in a university think tank.
I was never in his presence that I wasn’t the better for it. He taught me to dig deeper and take a broader perspective than I might have otherwise. He offered insights on current global issues, something he understood before others even recognized there was something to be understood, that were sorely needed. Fortunately, he left us an extensive and enduring legacy of his thoughts in writing. Unfortunately, he will not be able to add to it at a critical juncture, as he has so often done before. Most of all, however, we will miss the man. The world is a better place for the sojourn of Walt Whitman Rostow.