John T. Wenders Jr.

Dr. John T. Wenders, Jr. of 2266 Westview Drive in Moscow, ID died November 28, 2006 of complications related to esophageal cancer. He was 71. He was born on September 22, 1935 in Honesdale, PA as one of two children to John T. Wenders, a local businessman, and Ella C. Swanson, a school teacher. Dr. Wenders, known to everyone as "Jack," attended the Hill School in Pennsylvania and Amherst College. He earned Masters Degrees in Economics from the University of Hawaii and Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University in 1967. Jack taught at Middlebury College from 1963 to 1970, at the University of Arizona in Tucson from 1970 to 1981 (where he became a full professor of economics in 1976), and at the University of Idaho in Moscow from 1981 until his retirement in 1998. At the time of his death, he was Professor Emeritus at the University of Idaho, and a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation. In his professional career, Jack was both a gifted teacher of economics and researcher. He was an expert in the economics of telecommunications and regulated industries, and a highly respected witness in regulatory and anti-trust hearings and litigation. He published a number of seminal articles in industrial organization and regulatory economics in leading economics journals, and was a frequent contributor on popular topics in economics, education, natural resources, and wildlife in The Wall Street Journal, publications of the Universities of Arizona and Idaho, and Idaho newspapers. He directed an institute in regulatory economics for many years, and consulted regularly with a variety of government agencies and private companies. His book, The Economics of Telecommunications, which was published in 1987, represents a lasting contribution to an understanding of the economics of the telecommunications industry. As a young man, Jack excelled as a baseball pitcher (to the point of once being invited to spring training with the Yankees), became a lifelong fan of the sport and of the old Brooklyn Dodgers. He was an avid hunter and trapper, equally at home in the solitude of the back country, the company of local folk, and the intellectual argument of an academic forum. As an economist, he was a passionate champion of free markets and individual rights. In retirement, he focused on improving public education; as Senior Policy Advisor and Co-Founder of Education Excellence in Idaho, much of his work is documented on their website. Jack Wenders is survived by his sister, Clare W. Reafler of White Mills, PA; a son, John III, currently a student at the University of Chicago; and several nieces and nephews. He will be missed by his family and by his many friends. Memorial donations may be made to the CATO Institute.