Yale Brozen

Yale Brozen (B.A.'39, Ph.D.'42), Professor Emeritus in the Graduate School of Business and a strong champion of free market economies, died March 4 at his home in San Diego. He was 80.

Along with such pioneering colleagues as Ronald Coase, Milton Friedman and George Stigler, Brozen was an important architect of the Chicago School of Economics, which began to develop in the 1960s and is characterized by a devotion to free markets. Brozen's support of free markets was driven by a conviction that they would create prosperity for all, especially the poor.

Throughout his academic career, Brozen positioned himself at the interface of economics and public policy, promoting economics as a powerful tool to analyze and shape public and private economic decisions. A scholar of applied economics, microeconomics, industrial organization and technology, Brozen joined the Chicago faculty in 1957 and remained actively involved in teaching and research activities until he retired in 1987.

Brozen was a consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, the President's Materials Policy Commission and the National Science Foundation, and in the early 1980s he served on President Ronald Reagan's transition team.

Brozen received a B.A. from MIT in 1938. He received a second B.A. in 1939, and a Ph.D. in economics in 1942, both from Chicago. During WWII, Brozen served as director of the Radar and Telephone Maintenance Training Program for the U.S. Army Signal Corps.

He is survived by his wife, Katherine Hart Brozen; his sons, Yale Brozen II of Rochester, Vt., and Reed Brozen of Hanover, N.H.; and a sister, Geraldine Weiner of Kansas City, Mo.

A memorial service will be held in Chicago this spring. Memorial contributions may be sent to Development Department, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 1101 E. 58th St., Chicago, IL 60637.