CAPRON, William M(osher) 1920-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born July 30, 1920, in New York, NY; died October 5, 2002, in Palo Alto, CA. Economist, educator, and author. Capron was a respected economist who was an advisor for both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. A 1942 graduate of Swarthmore College, he served in the U.S. Army's Fifth Armored Division during World War II, fighting at the Battle of the Bulge and earning a Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross. After the war, he went back to school and completed his master's degree in economics at Harvard University in 1948. He then joined the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, resigning in protest when the chair of the economics department was dismissed under pressure by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy's Un-American Activities Committee. Capron worked for the RAND Corporation during the early 1950s and then returned to teaching as an assistant professor at Stanford University. In 1962 he became a senior economist for President John F. Kennedy's Council of Economic Advisers and helped to establish the Office of Economic Opportunity; he continued working for the government under the Johnson administration until his feelings about the Vietnam War caused him to leave his post for a position at the Brookings Institution. From 1969 until his retirement in 1990, Capron taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; he also served as associate dean there and in 1971 edited the book Technological Change in the Regulated Industries. After his retirement Capron kept busy by advising governments all over the world on their economic policies.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Who's Who in America, 41st edition, Marquis (Wilmette, IL), 1980.

PERIODICALS

San Francisco Chronicle, October 12, 2002, p. A19. Washington Post, October 14, 2002, p. B6.