The Harvard graduate, John Henry Gray (A.B. 1887), was an instructor of political economy at his alma mater in 1888-1889. His European tour as a graduate student took him from Halle (Germany) to Paris, Vienna, and Berlin. He returned to the U.S. with a doctorate from the University of Halle to begin his academic career at Northwestern. A chronology of his life and subsequent career is included below.
Fun Fact: John Henry Gray donated his private library of about one thousand volumes to Carleton College. It included a third edition of Wealth of Nations.
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John Henry Gray
1859. Born March 11, 1859 at Charleston, Ill.
Prepared for college at State Normal University in Illinois.
1881-1882. Principal of the High School of Centralia, Illinois.
1883. Enters Harvard College. Sophomore year he began his studies of Political Economy.
1887. A.B., magna cum laude. Harvard with special honors in Political Science. Phi-Beta-Kappa.
1887-1888. Graduate student, Harvard University.
1888-1889. Appointed instructor of political economy following resignation of Professor J. L. Laughlin.
July, 1889. Rogers Fellow of Harvard for graduate study of two semesters at Halle with Professors Conrad and Loening (1889-1890); seven months at Paris (1890-1891), with Levasseur, Leroy-Beaulieu, Sorel, De Foville; one semester at Vienna with Carl Menger, Böhm-Bawerk and v. Miaskowski (1891); and more than a semester in Berlin with Wagner, Schmoller and Gneist (1891-92).
1892. Doctorate awarded by the University of Halle, magna cum laude. Thesis: Die Stellung der privaten Beleuchtungsgesellschaften zu Stadt und Staat. Die Erfahrungen in Wien, Paris und Massachusetts. Jena, 1893.
1892-1907. Professor of political economy and social science, Northwestern University.
1893. Chairman of the World’s Congress Auxiliary on Political Science in Chicago.
1894-1896. Chairman of the municipal committee of the Civic Federation of Chicago.
1902. Consultant to the United States Department of Labor to investigate restrictions of output in Great Britain.
1902. International Cooperative Congress in Manchester, England as representative of the U.S. Commissioner of Labor.
1902. U.S. representative to Congresses of labor, commerce and industry in Düsseldorf (Germany) and Ostend (Belgium).
1905. Member of the National Civic Federation Commission on Municipal Ownership.
1907-1920. Professor of economics, University of Minnesota.
1911-1914. National Civic Federation Commission on Municipal ownership, regulation of public service corporations.
1913. Author of compilation and analysis of all American statutes relating to the regulation of public service corporations.
1914. President of the American Economic Association.
1917-1919. Chief analyst and examiner in the bureau of valuations, Interstate Commerce Commission.
World War I. Lt. Col., U.S. Army and member of the board of appraisers of all property commandeered for the Army. Second man to enroll in the American Legion.
1920-1925. Professor of economics, Carleton College.
1925-1928. Chief analyst and examiner in the bureau of valuations of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
1928-1932. Head of department of economics in the graduate school of American University.
1929. Joint author with G. W. Terborgh of a study of Urban Mortgages in the United States since 1920.
1933. Co-author with Jack Levin, The Regulation and Valuation of Public Utilities. Harper & Brothers.
1946. Died April 4 in Winter Park, Florida.
Sources:
Personal Notes, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol. 3 (Sept., 1892), pp. 112-113.
Jesse S. Robinson. John Henry Gray, 1859-1946. American Economic Review, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Sept. 1946), pp. 664-666.
Image Source: University of Minnesota Libraries, UMedia. Gray, John H. webpage.