Malcolm William Hoag Ph.D.

HOAG, Malcolm William, Ph.D.
Born in Toledo, Ohio on March 30, 1922, Malcolm W. Hoag passed away peacefully on October 7, 2002, in Culver City, California, from complications following a stroke. Dr. Hoag grew up in the Toledo, Ohio area, and won a scholarship to attend Ohio State University. While there, Hoag lived in the famous Stadium Club (dorms built into Ohio Stadium), where he tutored Ohio State football players, including future Hall of Famer Bill Willis, of the old Cleveland Browns. After earning his Bachelor and Master degrees in economics in 1943, Hoag entered Officer Candidate School, where, as one of the "90-Day Wonders", he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and served as an instructor and navigator in the Army Air Corps during WWII. Following the war, Hoag was awarded a fellowship to attend the University of Chicago, Department of Economics and earned a Ph.D. in 1950. His professors included the world-renowned economist, Professor Milton Friedman, who served on Hoag's dissertation committee. He began his career as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Illinois. Heading west, Dr. Hoag joined the nascent RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. Dr. Hoag spent thirty years at RAND, serving as Senior Economist. During his RAND career, from the beginning and throughout the Cold War, Dr. Hoag was instrumental in strategic analysis of conventional and nuclear war capabilities, and the economics of defense, with a particular focus on NATO issues. He also worked on the Marshall Plan following WWII, taught at the National War College in Washington, D.C., and guest lectured at U.C.L.A. Malcolm loved to listen to jazz, play tennis and root for the Ohio State Buckeyes. He was a sought-after dance partner. He is survived by his only daughter, Margaret A. Mueller, his son-in-law, John C. Mueller, his grandchildren, Monica and Matthew Mueller, all of Calabasas, California, his brother Frank Hogg of Fort Myers, Florida, and his sister Ethel Zientek, of Cincinnati, Ohio.