|
Richard Pollock (1934-1992)
Professor, UH-Manoa Economics, 1968 - 1992
Richard Pollock arrived in Hawaii in 1968 as one of a large cohort of faculty to be hired to lay the groundwork for the University's Ph.D. program in economics. A native of the Seattle, Washington area, he received B.A. and M.A. degrees in economics from the University of Washington in 1955 and 1956. His first professional position was with the State of Washington, working on studies of highway financing. In 1960, he moved to the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee as Instructor in their Department of Economics, while also pursuing a Ph.D. program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 1962, he moved to Washington, D.C., first as an aide to Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin, then as a financial economist with the Office of Tax Analysis in the Treasury Department. Meanwhile, he completed his dissertation and was awarded the Ph.D. in 1968.
Taxation and the efficiency and equity of government programs was the common theme of nearly all of his professional work. His dissertation, as well as several reports and papers in ensuing years, dealt with the tax treatment of depreciation. Through the U.S. Department of Interior, he designed a public finance program for Micronesia. After coming to Hawaii, he did several projects on property taxation and broadened this interest into general studies of the difficult Hawaii housing market of the 1970s and 1980s. He investigated the equity and efficiency of taxing tourists in Hawaii, and developed a major interest in the equity and adequacy of Social Security taxes and benefits. A major line of inquiry for some 15 years beginning in the late 1970s was the efficiency and equity of public water pricing paradigms. He served the State of Hawaii as a member of or consultant to several tax policy committees, including the Tax Review Commissions of the early and mid-1980s.
Dick was intensely curious about everything. Once his interest was piqued, he continued firing questions until he'd found out all he wanted to know or at least everything one could tell him about the subject. This curiosity was reflected in a famed tendency to loquaciousness, in informal conversation as well as formal professional work. (He admitted, somewhat sheepishly, that his 487-page dissertation had to be bound in two volumes.) Although he was not well-trained in mathematics, he had a keenly analytical mind, and was responsible for the genesis of many research projects among students and colleagues.
Dick prided himself on never having bought a U.H. parking permit, instead always walking or taking the bus. For years, he delighted in owning only out-of-production vehicles--a Corvair, a Chevette or the like. It was a great surprise to discover that he'd finally bought a new Toyota. He enjoyed hiking and was a fixture at lectures, community meetings and the like.
It came as a great shock when, in the summer of 1991, he circulated a memo stating matter-of-factly that he had lung cancer--ironic for a person who never smoked, exercised moderately and was very careful about diet. His memo noted that "This will be the first Fall semester after 22 years in the UH Economics Department that I will not be meeting classes." After pursuing several administrative projects for the department that fall semester, he died at age 58 in February 1992.
James Moncur
March, 2006
Honolulu, Hawaii
|
