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Marcellus Scowcroft Snow
Professor, UH-Manoa Economics, 1974-1998
I didn't rush into economics as a career. I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, and at nineteen, embarked on a two and a half year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Southern Germany. Returning to the University of Utah, I majored in mathematics and edited the university newspaper. Pursuing interests in language and international affairs, I first completed an M.S. in linguistics at MIT and then an M.A. in international relations at SAIS, the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. Thereafter, I worked for two years in Washington, D.C. for COMSAT, the Communications Satellite Corporation.
Wanting to preserve the option of an academic career, I next obtained a Ph.D. in economics at the University of California, Berkeley. My published dissertation was the first book-length treatment of the economics of satellite communications.
In 1974, Robert Heller, the chair of the UH-Manoa Economics Department, was looking for someone to teach econometrics, microeconomics, and statistics. He made me an offer based on my resume and a phone interview alone, because the Department had no money to bring me to Honolulu for a job interview. He told me his salary offer was the best he could do, but assured me the view of the ocean from my office window was worth $5,000. Enjoying academia more than business or government, I accepted the position.
In August, 1974, I, my wife Jo, and our sons David (4) and Jonathan (8 months) landed in Honolulu. (Our son Matthew was born in Honolulu in 1978.) We rented Burnie Campbell's house and spent many hot September afternoons cooling off at Hanauma Bay and wondering it we could adapt to the Hawaii climate. We spent Christmas break in cold and foggy Salt Lake City. After the break, as soon as we got off the plane in Honolulu, we saw the clear blue sky, felt the warm humid air, and decided to stay for a while. We haven't left yet!
My primary research has been in the economics of international telecommunications. I have written numerous books, articles, conference papers, and consulting reports on this topic. In 1980-81, I spent my sabbatical year as a Fulbright research professor at the University of Bonn, Germany. In the summer of 1983, I was a guest researcher at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. While there I prepared a successful National Science Foundation grant for a telecommunications conference held in Washington, DC.
In spring 1992, I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. After retiring from the University of Hawaii in December, 1998, I completed my translation of Der Wettbewerb als Entdeckungsverfahren (Competition as a Discovery Procedure) by Friedrich A. von Hayek. The translation was published in the Fall 2002 issue of The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.
Marcellus Snow
Honolulu, Hawaii
February 2007
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