Sad news came today from my friend down at UVA, Prof. Ken Elzinga: Bill Breit died this morning after a lengthy illness.
Bill and Ken together wrote wonderful economic mysteries under the noms de plume “Marshall Jevons.” Reading these three novels is a splendid way to learn some economics.
But Bill was more than just a writer of mystery novels: he was a superb economist, scholar, and teacher who served for many years on the economics faculty at UVA and then, for the past nearly 30 years, on the econ faculty at Trinity University in San Antonio. Here’s Bill’s website.
Bill was also uproariously funny. He was one of those people who made you laugh – deeply, healthily, and never for cheap or childish reasons – every time you were in his company.
I’m honored to have been in Bill’s company on several occasions, usually for dinners at annual meetings of the Southern Economic Association (although, alas, not recently). I regret that wasn’t in his company even more frequently.
I’ll miss him.
