Enid Fogel, 84, promoted GSB, supported husband’s research

Enid M. Fogel, retired Associate Dean of Students for the University’s Graduate School of Business, died Sunday, Sept. 2, at the University Medical Center.

Mrs. Fogel, 84, was a resident of Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Her husband Robert Fogel, a Nobel Prize—winning economist, credited her work as a researcher in helping him succeed in his career. Robert Fogel is the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of American Institutions in the GSB. At the time of her death, Mrs. Fogel and her husband were writing two books: Simon Kuznets and the Empirical Tradition in Economics and The Transformation of Economics, 1914-1980: Interviews with Economists.

“Over the years, Enid has been both my most confident supporter and my keenest critic,” Robert Fogel wrote in his autobiography posted on the Nobel Prize Web site ( www.nobelprize.org). “No individual has done more to help me pursue a career in science than my wife. When I was an assistant professor, she combined care of the children with many hours of unpaid labor as a research assistant in library archives.

“She helped boost my self-confidence when my unorthodox findings provoked controversy and criticism, and she often provided insightful suggestions for the improvement of my lectures, papers, books, letters and research proposals.”

Mrs. Fogel, who began her career as a university administrator at the University of Rochester in 1969, accepted a position as Assistant Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Chicago in 1970.

In 1975, Robert Fogel went to teach at Harvard University, where Mrs. Fogel earned a M.A. in education, before becoming dean of students for Harvard’s summer school. She also was assistant director of Harvard’s evening program for B.A. degrees and served as assistant director of the school’s program in continuing education.

The Fogels returned to Chicago in 1981, when Mrs. Fogel began serving as Associate Dean of Students for the GSB, a position she held until 1988. Every year, Mrs. Fogel and her husband hosted a dinner for all minority students enrolled in the Graduate School of Business.

During the 1990s, she and her husband traveled to Europe and Asia on behalf of the University to call attention to the new executive M.B.A. program being offered on those continents.

In addition to her husband, survivors include sons Michael and Steven; daughter-in-law Suzanne; grandchildren Lisa, Andrew and Rachel; a brother Ned Morgan; and a sister Marjorie Henry. A sister, Ismay Flynn, preceded her in death.

A memorial service will be scheduled this fall. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages friends to make donations to the University or a charity of their choosing. Letters of condolence may be sent care of: Center for Population Economics, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 5807 S. Woodlawn Ave., Chicago, IL 60637.