F. Taylor Ostrander Jr.

F. Taylor Ostrander, Jr. 1910 - 2011 WILLIAMSTOWN Frank Taylor Ostrander, Jr. died on November 10, 2011 in Williamstown. He was 101. Taylor was born in Pittsburgh, PA on Nov. 1, 1910. He moved to White Plains, NY with his parents, Frank Taylor Ostrander and Florence Littlejohn Hawkins, in 1916 and then to Scarsdale, NY in 1926. He graduated from the Hackley School in Tarrytown, NY. Taylor received his B.A. from Williams College in 1932, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with Final Honors in Economics. In 1932-33 he studied economics at Oxford University on a British-sponsored Henry Fellowship, and continued graduate study at the University of Chicago (1933-34). He was called to teach as an Instructor of Economics at Williams College, where he taught from 1934 to 1935. His professional career spanned a half century. He served in the government and in the private and education sectors. His government service began in Washington, DC with the Treasury Department in the early New Deal, directing WPA projects in Baltimore and Chicago, and several smaller projects in the Midwest. Then, while still with the Treasury Department, he worked for four years on international trade and monetary matters. From late 1940 he worked in the defense and war agencies, most importantly in 1940-41 as co-chairman of a group of economists working closely with the national director for price stabilization, but also in the Munitions Branch of the War Production Board and at the Office of the Alien Property Custodian. He took a private-sector position for two years as Economic Consultant to the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, working on wartime tax and labor policies and on postwar economic potentials. In January 1945 he went back to the government to serve in the Mission for Economic Warfare at the American Embassy in London, followed by postwar intelligence work in Frankfurt, Germany. This led to his assignment to US Military Government there and at General Clay's headquarters in Berlin, where, for nearly three years, he was chief of Price Control and U.S. member of the Price Control Committee at the four-power Allied Control Council. In 1948 he joined the Marshall Plan regional office in Paris where he served in the US Delegation to OEEC and later as director of the Economic Capabilities Division in the US Mission to NATO. Taylor returned to the USA in 1953, settled in Chappaqua, NY, and went to work at the American Metal Co., which later became American Metal Climax, Inc. and finally AMAX, Inc. He worked for the next 30 years there, serving for more than two decades as Assistant to the Chairman. In the 1950s and 60s he handled political and economic aspects of his company's investments in copper mining in southern Africa; in later years he was mainly concerned with the company's interests in international policies on investment, trade, resources and environment. While at AMAX, and continuing after he retired in 1983, he was an Adjunct Professor of International Business at the Lubin Graduate School of Business, Pace University, New York. He remained active through the 1990s and 2000s, settling in Williamstown and participating in many scholarly ventures such as the late Warren J. Samuels' multi-volume "Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology." He was predeceased by his first wife, Liesel Schulze, and by his second wife, Ruth Valerie Koschuk, and son Pieter. He is survived by his daughter Tryntje, sons Frank and Christopher, grandchildren Tasha, Tarik, Alaric, Zachary, Nikita, Katrina, Otis, Alexander, Lyra, and great-grandchildren Ivan and Isaac. MEMORIAL NOTICE: A memorial service will be held at St. John's Episcopal Church in Williamstown, MA, Dec. 10 at noon. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the charity of your choice in care of FLYNN & DAGNOLI-MONTAGNA HOME FOR FUNERALS WEST CHAPELS, 521 West Main St. North Adams, MA 01247