STEPHEN ALAN ROSS

1944 - 2017

ROSS, STEPHEN ALANStephen Alan Ross, Franco Modigliani Professor of Financial Economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-founder of Ross, Jeffrey & Antle LLC, an active investment advisory firm, died suddenly on March 3, 2017 at his weekend home in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Steve, a long-time resident of New Haven, was previously the Sterling Professor of Economics and Finance at Yale University and, before that, a professor of economics and finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Born in Boston on February 3rd, 1944, Steve was the son of the late Arthur Isadore Ross and Betty Grechesky. He earned a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. Steve Ross will be known for his pioneering work in finance and investment management, and the sophisticated and innovative models he developed such as Arbitrage Pricing Theory, which are widely used by firms around the world. Recently, Ross discovered the Recovery Theorem, which opens the door to forming market forecasts from information implicit in option prices. While Steve's achievements in science were legendary, he also found great joy in his years spent teaching and mentoring. His Socratic lecture style encouraged students' ideas and creativity, assisted them in developing independent, analytical minds as scholars, and helped them discover their own voice. His former students can be found in almost all major university finance departments and financial corporations today. In 2007, they honored him by establishing the Foundation for the Advancement of Research in Financial Economics (FARFE) and the Stephen A. Ross Prize in Financial Economics. Steve authored more than 100 articles in economics and finance and was the coauthor of an introductory textbook in finance still in use in business schools around the world. He was awarded five honorary doctorates and was the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including the 2015 Deutsche Bank Prize in Financial Economics, the 2012 Onassis Prize for Finance, the Graham and Dodd Award for financial writing, the Pomerance Prize for excellence in the area of options research, the University of Chicago's Leo Melamed Prize, and the 1996 IAFE Financial Engineer of the Year Award. In 2006, he was the first recipient of the CME-MSRI Prize in Innovative Quantitative Application, and in 2007 he won the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize given by the Toulouse School of Economics. Ross was president of the American Finance Association and a consultant to major investment banks and corporations. He advised government departments including U.S. Treasury, the Commerce Department, the Internal Revenue Service, and the EXIM Bank. He served as chairman of the American Express Advisory Panel and as a director of General Re, Freddie Mac and CREF. At the time of his death, he was a senior trustee of CalTech. On the personal side, Steve loved travel, good food, great wine, UConn women's basketball, and most of all, his granddaughters, Lucy and Polly Bosch. He is survived by his wife, Carol Frost Ross; his son, Jonathan R. Ross; his daughter and son-in-law, Kate and Doug Bosch; his granddaughters, Lucy and Polly Bosch; and his sister Linda Grossbart. A memorial service will be held in New Haven in the spring. Donations may be sent to: Foundation for the Advancement of Research in Financial Economics (FARFE) c/o Professor Chester Spatt, Treasurer; Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213 or www.farfe.org.