DAVID BLANK

BLANK--David M.

Nearing his 94 birthday, David M. Blank passed away peacefully on December 27, 2014. To all who knew him he was a gentleman and a scholar, a kind man whose intellectual curiosity and knowledge about the world knew no bounds. Son of Louis and Fanny Blank, he was born at home in 1921 in an apartment on the Grand Concourse. Later the family moved to Mt. Vernon, only to lose their house and the family business. While his parents and his brother Seymour and sister Judy moved to Florida so his father could find work, David, already a remarkable student, remained behind in order to complete high school. Later, the family was able to reunite in Mt. Vernon when his father established a second clothing business. From A.B. Davis High School, he went on as a sixteen-year- old to study economics at Columbia University. Money was tight --tuition was $400 and books another $100. But with a $100 scholarship and a summer job with the Department of Agriculture that helped him pay the balance, David was able to ensure there was little financial burden on his family. In June 1941, he graduated, Phi Beta Kappa with Honors in Economics, and when the war broke out, he enlisted. He was assigned to the Third Army in Europe under General George Patton and was ultimately awarded three battle stars. Upon his discharge, and with help from the GI Bill, he returned to Columbia University, and received a Ph.D. in economics in 1950. In the 1950s, Blank's distinguished academic career included teaching at Columbia University, New York University, and the American Institute of Banking, as well as collaborating at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He worked at the Columbia Research Institute for Urban Land Use and Housing Studies and collaborated on numerous articles and books. A 1957 monograph for the National Bureau of Economic Research was written with George J. Stigler, a Nobel Prize winner in Economic Sciences and a key leader with Milton Friedman of the Chicago School of Economics. In 1955, he began a lengthy career at CBS that lasted for almost three decades. His final position was as Vice President, Economics and Research. Over the years, he focused on many varied economic, finance, social and demographic issues such television and violence to election night voter projection. When Blank retired from CBS in 1982, he became a consultant for NBC. In his youth in the late 1930s, the economic necessity that brought about the summer job also helped him develop what would become a lifelong passion. While working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture on a project intended to eradicate the blight of Dutch Elm disease, he acquired a vast knowledge of tree species and a love for them. In 1957, when he and his wife Hilda Schlefstein whom he married in 1948, moved to wooded acreage in Pleasantville, N.Y., they reveled in its beauty. In 2001, several years after his wife had succumbed to a lengthy illness, he moved to the Osborn Retirement Community in Rye, N.Y. There, he enjoyed long walks around its handsome 56 acres. In time, Blank had identified more than 100 tree species on the grounds and a total of more than 1,000 trees. Not only did he map the trees, but he also initiated a program of tagging each tree, and began to give his well-known tree walks that included the story of the rare Dawn Redwood. Today, the Osborne campus is nationally recognized as an Arboretum and nature walks are given a number of times a year. In retirement, he thrived on being surrounded by friends and family, books, and music, and involvement in organizations and foundations that supported issues of interest to him. These issues included womens reproductive rights, a passion that he shared with his wife Hilda, civil liberties, and the state of education. For several years, he presented broad contemporary economic issues to senior citizens in classes he offered at Westchester Community College. He was a man who never tired of learning something new and never tired of living. He will be sorely missed by his daughter Alison Blank, her husband, Jim Murphy, and their children, Michael and Ben, all of whom reside in Maplewood, N.J.