Background
Heller, Walter Wolfgang was born on August 27, 1915 in Buffalo. Son of Ernst and Gertrude (Warmburg) Heller.
Heller, Walter Wolfgang was born on August 27, 1915 in Buffalo. Son of Ernst and Gertrude (Warmburg) Heller.
AB, Oberlin College, 1935. Doctor of Laws, Oberlin College, 1964. Master of Arts, University Wisconsin, 1938.
Doctor of Philosophy, University Wisconsin, 1941. Doctor of Laws, University Wisconsin, 1969. Doctor of Letters, Kenyon College, 1965.
Doctor of Laws, Ripon College, 1967. Doctor of Laws, Long Island University, 1968. Doctor of Humane Letters, Coe College, 1967.
Doctor of Humane Letters, Loyola University, 1970. Doctor of Humane Letters, Roosevelt University, 1976.
Fiscal economist United States Treasury, 1942—1946, consultant, 1946—1953. Associate professor economics University Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1946—1950, professor, 1950—1966, Regents professor economics, 1966—1986, emeritus, 1986—1987, chairman department economics, 1957—1961. Visiting lecturer University Wisconsin, 1947, University Washington, 1950, Harvard, 1951.
Member international advisory board Banca Natonale del Lavoro, Rome, 1984—1987. Board directors National City bank corporation, Minneapolis, The Germany Fund. Chief internal finance United States Military Government, Germany, 1947—1948.
Chairman Council Economic Advisers to the President, 1961—1964. Consultant United Nations, 1952—1960, Minnesota Department Taxation, 1955—1960, National Education Association, 1958, Executive Office of President, 1965—1969, 1974—1977. Tax adviser Governor of Minnesota, 1955—1960.
Member Organization of European Cooperation and Development Group of Fiscal Experts, 1964—1968, chairman, 1966—1968. Consultant Congressional Budget Office, 1975—1987. Member Trilateral Commission, 1978—1984.
Member economic advisory board Time magazine. Member board contributors Wall St. Journal. Chairman economic study group Center National Policy.
( Walter W. Heller was Chairman of the Council of Econom...)
Author (with Clara Penniman): State Income Tax Administration, 1959. Author: New Dimensions of Political Economy, 1966. Author: (with Richard Ruggles and others) Revenue Sharing and the City, 1968.
Author: (with Milton Friedman) Monetary and Fiscal Policy, 1968, Economic Growth and Environmental Quality: Collision or Coexistence?, 1973. Author: What's Right with Economics, 1975, The Economy: Old Myths and New Realities, 1976, Economic Policy for Inflation (in Reflections of America), 1981, Activist Government (in Challenge), 1986.
I am one
of those fortunate individuals who has been able to realise his youthful professional ambitions, namely, a combined career of teaching, research and public service. Teaching and research, especially in taxation and public finance, dominated the first couple of decades of my career. My research was largely concentrated in federal and State income taxation and intergovernmental relations.
Early on, the opportunity to apply some of my training and experience to public policy questions came, first, as an economic analyst for the United States Treasury Department, working on
war finance with Roy Blough, Milton Friedman, Albert G. Hart, Joseph Pechman and others, and second, as Chief of Internal Finance and tax adviser to General Lucius Clay, United States Military Governor of Germany 1947-1948. For a time in the early-1950s, working as a consultant with the United Nations and as a summer teacher and researcher at Harvard, I worked and wrote on fiscal policy for less developed countries, with special applications in the field of general taxation and agricultural taxation. Serving as tax adviser to King Hussein and the Royal Commission of Jordan in 1960 and later as Chairman of the Group of Fiscal Experts for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development gave me an opportunity to apply some of these and other ‘lessons’ in public finance to practical policy problems.
Since serving as Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson in 1961-1964, my career interests have shifted even more to the translation of economic analysis and research into public policy.
Coupled with that has been an emphasis on the wider dissemination of economic ideas and findings to the informed lay public and policy-makers in business, finance and the government.
Member Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting, 1977—1978. Trustee Oberlin College, 1966—1978, 1985—1987, German Marshall Fund, College Retirement Equities Fund, 1968—1972, Lupus Foundation American, Inc., chairman national campaign committee. Fellow: American Academy Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, American Economic Association (distinguished, vice president 1967-1968, president 1974).
Member: National Bureau Economic Research (director, chairman 1971-1974, 1982-1983), International Management and Development Institute (associate), Skylight (Minneapolis), Alpha Kappa Psi, Beta Gamma Sigma, Phi Beta Kappa.
Married Emily K. Johnson, September 16, 1938 (deceased ). Children: Walter P., Eric J., Kaaren Louise.