Gift of $2.5 M honors some of Clemson’s economics faculty

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Clemson University’s John E. Walker Department of Economics recently received a gift of $2.5 million from an anonymous donor. This Academic Cornerstone gift will support the Ph.D. program in economics and honor the faculty members who have contributed in the past. Clemson Cornerstone Partners are a group of donors who have given the university $2.5 million or more.

Intended to propel the department forward and honor the past, the gift will be designated toward fellowships that are named after influential professors Mike Maloney, Bobby McCormick, John Warner, Robert Tollison, Matt Lindsay and Myles Wallace, who played important roles in developing the economics department, according to a news release.

Mike Maloney joined the Clemson economics department when it was still small. He helped to create the economics Ph.D. program at Clemson during his 45-year teaching career.

Robert “Bobby” McCormick earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in economics from Clemson before earning his doctorate from Texas A&M. He returned to teach economics at Clemson for decades before serving as the dean of the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business. Now, McCormick does consulting work in a number of areas, including corporate financial affairs, business planning and development and environmental matters.

John Warner began his career at Clemson’s economics department in 1980, prior to the existence of the Ph.D. program. His continued work with the Department of Defense throughout his career fueled his expertise in labor economics, macroeconomics and economic growth. He chaired 11 thesis or dissertation committees.

Robert “Bob” Tollison, a native of the Upstate, served as a senior staff economist on the President’s Council of Economic Advisors early in his career, followed a decade later by his appointment as director of the Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Federal Trade Commission. He was the J. Wilson Newman Professor of Economics at Clemson.

Matt Lindsay began his career with the U.S. Air Force before entering academia, and after earning his Ph.D. in economics, he was selected as a Hoover Institute Fellow to study health care in Britain at the London School of Economics. After teaching at several universities, he landed at Clemson, where he served as a mentor to graduate students and worked to create a community for young scholars for 30 years until his retirement in 2012.

Myles Wallace joined the Clemson faculty in 1980 and spent 27 years teaching in the economics department. His main research interest was applied macroeconomics, where he specialized in empirical testing of the validity of prevailing theories about how the macro economy works. His courses were aimed at teaching students how to use modern statistical methods to get answers to real-world problems. He died in 2016.

“The funding has helped us attract graduate students who are not only from the U.S. but from across the globe,” Scott Baier, professor and department chair, said in the news release. “Currently, we have graduate students from South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Another important thing that it provided is the attraction for faculty members. Faculty want to be where there is a good graduate program. In short, this gift has made Clemson a place where people want to do economics and do it well.” 

Within the cornerstone gift, $1.7 million will create a new Annual Fellowship in Economics Fund to provide fellowships for students in the department; $520,000 will create the Economics Department Faculty Fund for the benefit of the economics faculty and may support salary supplements, graduate assistants, and research; $280,000 will create the Economics Analytics Fund to provide funding for supplies, research and travel, according to the release.

Part of this gift will also be designated toward the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business’ analytics initiative.

“It’s going to make a huge difference for our graduate and undergraduate students in learning the business analytics skill that is so critical to them making strategic business decisions based on data,” said Wendy York, dean of the Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business.

“We are thankful for this cornerstone gift that honors faculty and leaders who helped make the department, college and Clemson University what they are today,” President Jim Clements said in the release. “The funding and fellowships made possible through this generous gift will have an immeasurable impact on the study and research of economics for our current and future faculty, staff and students.”