James Stemble Duesenberry

DUESENBERRY, James Stemble Of Belmont and Cambridge, MA died Monday, October 5, 2009, of heart failure. A prominent economist best known for proposing the Relative Income Hypothesis, Prof. Duesenberry was a member of President Lyndon Johnson's Council of Economic Advisors from 1966 to 1968. He served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston from 1969 to 1974. Born in 1918, Duesenberry earned his doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1948 and was a Fulbright Fellow at Cambridge University, England in 1954-55. He was appointed to the Faculty of Economics at Harvard University in 1955 and taught at Harvard until his retirement in 1989. He was Chair of Harvard University's Department of Economics from 1972 to 1977. Prof. Duesenberry is survived by his children John of Brookline, Holly of Gouldsboro, ME and Peggy of Stirling, Scotland and 4 grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at the First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist on October 16 at 12 noon. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made in his name to the American Friends Service Committee.