Edwin Francis Gay, 1867-1946

American economic historian at Harvard,

Detroit native from a wealthy background. After schooling in Switzerland and undergraduate training at Michigan (B.A. 1890), Gay went on a twelve-year tour of Europe (Leipzig, Gottingen, Zurich, Berlin, London). In 1902, he got a Ph.D. from University of Berlin, under Gustav Schmoller. 

Upon his return to the United States that same year, Gay was appointed assistant professor in economic history at Harvard, replacing the departed William J. Ashley. He became full professor in 1906 and, in 1908, was tapped by President Eliot to become the first dean of Harvard Business School.  Gay took leave when war broke out in 1917 to serve on the War Trade Board. Gay helped found the National Bureau for Economic Research (NBER) and became its first president in 1920.

E.F. Gay also was a founding member of the Council of Foreign Relations and helped launch Foreign Affairs. In 1919, Gay became the president and then editor of the New York Evening Post.  He returned to teach at Harvard in 1924. From this time, Gay also joined Wesley C. Mitchell as director of research at the NBER, which he would continue until 1933.

Gay helped found the Journal of Economics and Business History in 1928. He was offered Taussig's chair after 1935, but, instead, E.F. Gay resigned and took up a research position at the Huntington Library.  

Although he published very little, E.F. Gay trained numerous economic historians and was an important voice in the Harvard economics department.  He was succeeded by A.P. Usher.

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