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The David Chadwick Smith Chair in Economics

[David Smith in the mid 1980s]

A picture of David Smith taken in the mid 1980s.

The Department of Economics is trying to raise money to establish a chair in memory of David Smith, who was Head of the Department from 1968 to 1981 and Principal of the University from 1984 to 1994. These pages provide some information about David's life and about how we wish to honour his memory.

David Smith's Life
The David Chadwick Smith Chair in Economics
How to Contact Us

David Smith's Life

The son of Baptist missionaries, David Chadwick Smith was born in Ootacamund, in southeastern India, on August 12, 1931. His family moved back to Simcoe, Ontario when he was eight years old, where he attended public and high school. David then went to McMaster University, graduating in 1953 with an Honours Degree in Economics, and winning a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, where he obtained a Master's Degree. It was at McMaster that he met his wife Mary Taylor, who is now an ordained United Church minister. They married in 1955. After completing his studies at Oxford, David Smith moved to Harvard, where in 1959 he received a PhD, specializing in open-economy fiscal policy.

A brief stint as an Assistant Professor at Berkeley ended in July 1960, after which he began a long career at Queen's. Dr. Smith was promoted to Associate in 1963 and to Full Professor in 1966, just three years later. In 1968, he was named Head of the Department of Economics, a position he held until 1981. In 1984, he was appointed Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Queen's, serving two five-year terms. Dr. Smith turned 65 in 1996 and received the title Emeritus Principal and Professor. From July 1997 to June 1998, he served as Interim President and Vice-Chancellor of Trent University. David Smith died on May 22, 2000 at the age of 68, after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife, Mary, two children, Monica and Geoffrey, and three grandchildren.

During David Smith's years as Head of the Department of Economics at Queen's, he transformed a small but distinguished department into a major, internationally-recognized centre for economic research and teaching. The list of economists he recruited to Queen's reads like a who's who of the profession. They include no less than six presidents of the Canadian Economics Association and three Fellows of the Econometric Society. The graduate program in Economics flourished under David's guidance, becoming the largest in the country at the Ph.D. level. Many former graduate students are among the country's leading policy-makers, and there is hardly an economics department in Canada that does not include a Queen's graduate on its masthead. Those who were at Queen's during David Smith's tenure, which includes regular faculty and the many visitors that he attracted, were drawn in by the friendly and collegial atmosphere, an atmosphere that has been one of his enduring legacies.

As Principal of Queen's from 1984 to 1994, a period of increasingly severe financial constraints and social change, David Smith enhanced the university's standing as one of the premier academic institutions in Canada. Among his many achievements were the Stauffer Library, the Biosciences Complex, the National Scholars program, the International Study Centre at Herstmonceux, and the University's first women's studies program. As well, Dr. Smith was instrumental in the formation of the School of Policy Studies and, prior to becoming Principal, the John Deutsch Institute for the Study of Economic Policy. His gentle, patient style and unwaveringly high standards, which had helped transform the Economics Department, became the hallmarks of his time as Principal.

David Smith was widely sought out as an advisor by both governments and universities over his more than 40-year career. He was a member of the Ontario Economic Council for ten years, including three as Deputy Chair, Vice-Chair of the Ontario Royal Commission on Workers' Compensation, and Director of Research (Economics) for the highly influential MacDonald Royal Commission. More recently, David was senior policy advisor to the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation and Chair of the advisory panel on postsecondary education in Ontario. In fact, he completed the last two of three major reports on the financing of postsecondary education shortly before his death.

David Smith received many honours. In 1976, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and, in 1994, he became a Member of the Order of Canada. As well, Dr. Smith was awarded honourary degrees by McMaster University, Queen's University at Belfast, the University of Western Ontario, Queen's University, and Loyalist College of Applied Arts and Technology. But it is the honour that he brought to his friends and those he worked with that will be most remembered. "He was such a wonderful human being," said Queen's benefactor Alfred Bader after hearing of David Smith's death. It was his selfless desire to serve, combined with his extraordinary ability, that led Tom Courchene to describe him as "a national treasure." Although David Smith was a private man, those who were his colleagues in the Economics Department, and later in the broader university community, felt close to him. It was this feeling of affection and admiration that allowed David to bring out the best in the people, and it may have been the true source of his success.

The David Chadwick Smith Chair in Economics

In his thirteen years as Head of the Queen's Economics Department, and later his ten years as Principal of Queen's, David Smith's overriding concern was the pursuit of excellence. He built the Department of Economics into one of the leading departments in Canada by hiring the best people he could possibly find.

With this legacy in mind, the Economics Department proposes to establish, in David's memory, the David Chadwick Smith Chair in Economics. The chair would be held by a truly outstanding economist, someone who will contribute greatly to the international reputation of the Department and also to its teaching at the under-graduate and graduate levels. This model was established by David Smith himself when he brought Richard Lipsey back to Canada in 1970. This outstanding appointment helped to attract many excellent junior faculty members and played a key role in the subsequent development of the Department.

It was David's policy throughout his tenure as Head to hire the best people available, without regard to field. He was never distracted by short-term needs for people with the particular skills to fill particular slots at particular points in time. In keeping with this policy and the wishes of the Smith family, the Chair will be held by a scholar who may be in any area of Economics.

The David Chadwick Smith Chair will be the premier chair in Economics in Canada, and we intend its first occupant to be an economist of the very first rank. The Department of Economics is capable of attracting such a person, but it is important that there be sufficient resources. In addition to paying the holder's salary, the income generated from the endowment would be used to provide funds for travel and research, including support of graduate students. In view of this, and given the strong competition for an individual of the calibre we are seeking, we need to raise at least four million dollars.

Exciting News!

Since the spring of 2003, there have been several exciting developments. We received a major instititutional donation of one million dollars. As a result, the University agreed to match all funds raised on a dollar-for-dollar basis. These two developments brought the Chair very much closer to reality, and they made it much easier for us to raise funds from other sources. In consequence, we achieved our goal of four million dollars, counting pledges, in the spring of 2004. As a result, the Chair was formally approved by the Board of Trustees on May 8, 2004.

Although the David Smith Chair will undoubtedly become a reality, the current level of funds in hand and schedule of pledges will not allow us to fill it before 2007. If we can raise a modest additional sum, we will be able to fill the Chair sooner. Further donations would therefore be extremely welcome.

How to Contact Us

If you would like to contribute to the David C. Smith Chair, or you would like to help us raise funds for this project, please do not hesitate to contact us. There are several ways to do so.

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