Advancing Economics, Transforming Lives

September 2008

Passages

G. Edward Schuh
I am very sad to convey the news that University of Minnesota Regents Professor Emeritus G. Edward Schuh died on Sunday afternoon, May 4, from complications following heart surgery on May 1.  He was 77.  When he died, Ed was surrounded by his wife, Ignez, and their three daughters, Audrey, Susan, and Tanya.  Funeral arrangements are pending.

Ed was a Hoosier, and he received his B.S. degree in agricultural education from Purdue University in 1952.  He went on to study agricultural economics at Michigan State University, where he was awarded his M.S. degree in 1954.  After two years in the U.S. Army, he entered the graduate program in economics at the University of Chicago, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1961.

Ed joined the Agricultural Economics faculty at Purdue University in 1961 and quickly rose to the rank of professor in 1965.  He was a Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Vicosa in Brazil from 1963 to 1965, and it was there he met his lifelong love, Ignez.  This also was the beginning of a lifelong connection with Brazil that continued until his death.  In July 2004, Ed was honored by the Brazilian Society of Agricultural Economics with a new award - Legendary Member of the Society - in recognition of his lifetime contributions.

In April 2005, he received the National Order of Scientific Merit, Grã Cruz, from the Brazilian Academy of Science and the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology. This is Brazil's highest scientific award and is considered the equivalent of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Ed remained at Purdue University until 1979, but during that time he served as program Advisor to the Ford Foundation, Senior Staff Economist on the President's Council of Economic Advisors under President Ford, and Deputy Undersecretary for International Affairs and Commodity Programs at USDA.

Ed joined what was then the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota in 1979 as Head, and he served in that capacity until 1984.  This was a time of growth and change in the Department, with many new faces and a constant stream of high-level visitors.  There were new initiatives focusing on state, national, and international issues; and we had a large, diverse graduate program with outstanding students who are now leaders in our profession.  Ed also was very successful in attracting gift funds.  He played a key role in the establishment of our first endowed chair - the E. Fred Koller Chair in Agricultural Management Information Systems.  Later, he was successful in raising endowment funds for the Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy - a center that has contributed significantly to our Department over more than twenty years.

Ed resigned as Department Head in the early fall of 1984 to take the position of Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development at the World Bank.  He was there until 1987 when he returned to the University of Minnesota as Dean of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.  Ed served in that capacity until 1996.  He later became the Orville and Jane Freeman Professor in International Trade and Investment Policy, a position he held until his retirement in November 2007.

Ed made truly significant professional contributions through his work on trade, foreign exchange rates and international financial markets in an open world economy, poverty and food security, agricultural policy, and science and technology policy.  He received the American Agricultural Economics Association award for Best Published Research in 1971 for his book Agricultural Development in Brazil, and three years later his article on "The Exchange Rate and U.S. Agriculture" received the Best Article prize from the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.  Ed served as President of AAEA in 1981-82 and he was elected a Fellow of the Association in 1984.  He was also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  He received honorary doctoral degrees from the Federal University of Vicosa and from Purdue University.  In 1998 he was elected a Regents Professor, the highest honor possible here at the University of Minnesota. Just last week, we learned that Ed was a 2008 recipient of the University of Minnesota Presidents Award for Outstanding Service for providing exceptional service to the University community.

Ed's published work will continue to inspire and challenge scholars for many years to come, but the impacts he had on the lives of people around him will be just as long lived.  Ed was completely devoted to Ignez and their children.  One rarely had a conversation with him without getting some news of Ed's family and being asked about one's own.  Ed was a mentor for countless graduate students from all around the world, and he was a trusted friend to colleagues everywhere he has been.

-Received from MSU Ag. Economics alumnus Robert P. King

Leonard Kyle
Leonard Kyle was born Oct. .31, 1918, in Louisville, Ohio.  He married the woman of his dreams, Martha (Reams) Sept 6, 1941.  He taught ROTC at Michigan State Collage and served as a major in the 11th armored division during the Battle of the Bulge in WWII.  He earned a Ph.D from Purdue University in 1953.  Starting as an agricultural extension agent at Purdue and then Michigan State University, he taught agricultural economics and worked overseas on A.I.D. projects.  He also served on the National Chamber of Commerce as an expert on family farms. After his final retirement in 1977, he and Martha traveled all over the world and spent time with family.  He was honored as a Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University.  Leonard was also a co-editor of the Murrayhill Times.

Leonard is survived by his wife, Martha of Beaverton, OR; sister Arlene Dotson of Canton,OH; daughter Lucinda Burns and her husband Don Burns of Portland, OR and their children, Douglas of Portland, Andrea of Las Vegas, NV, and Meabon of Palo Alto, CA; son David of Bend, OR and his wife Eileen Riley, and their children, Trevor of Bend and Preston of Portland, OR.