Stephan Michelson

AKA Delta X

Stephan Michelson died at his home in Hendersonville, North Carolina, on August 12, 2025.

Stephan was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 28, 1938, to Morris and Harriet (Steinberg) Michelson. He attended the Brookline public schools and graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in Music (and won a coveted summer residence in orchestral conducting at Tanglewood). He went on to earn an MA from Reed College and PhD in Economics from Stanford University.

Stephan taught briefly at Reed College, then went to Washington to work for the Office of Economic Opportunity. He returned to Cambridge for a position at Harvard's School of Education, where he was one of the co-authors of Christopher Jencks' Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effects of Family and Schooling in America.

Stephan then moved to Harvard's Center for Economic Development. One day, in the elevator of his office building, he got into a conversation with lawyers who were representing the late and esteemed Julius Hobson in his suit arguing that uneven per pupil expenditures were a form of discrimination. The conversation turned to econometrics, an area in which Stephan was highly proficient, and by the time the elevator doors opened, he was the statistician supporting that suit. In his cross-examination by James D. St. Clair, he demonstrated that the analysts for the defendants (the Washington, DC School Board), who argued that crowded, predominantly Black high schools were larger and therefore didn't need as many resources per pupil due to economies of scale, fundamentally misunderstood the concepts they were using. Judge J. Skelley Wright agreed, and Hobson versus Hansen is now an important decision in the progress of civil rights.

Stephan had found a professional calling. He went on to be a litigation support consultant, working for both defendants and plaintiffs, and his companies, Econometric Research Inc. and Longbranch Research Inc., built an admirable record of victories and settlements. The thinking he brought to his cases was innovative and sophisticated, and his analyses frequently convinced judges and juries to turn away contesting briefs from leading academic statisticians. As he transitioned to retirement, he wrote a landmark volume – The Expert: The Statistical Analyst in Litigation – which summarized the important statistical and analytic issues underlying court decisions, both good and bad, and brought economic thinking to questions such as the number of people needed for the most accurate jury.

But it is likely that just as many people know Stephan as Delta X, a performer of country blues and other musical genres, best known for his collaborations with Michael A. Stewart (Backward Sam Firk); Red Shadow: the Economics Rock 'n' Roll Band, a group of leftist economists from the 1970s; and his albums, The Powers of X, More Powers of X, and Delta X Plays With His Friends. He founded a record label, Physical Records, through which he put out well-reviewed albums across a broad palette of genres and cultures, from Balkan folk music (Laduvane) to rock and swing (Patty Larkin, Mike Turk) to his first love, country blues (including Etta Baker, whom he recorded in a mail truck he had converted into a mobile four-track studio).

While pursuing his statistical work, Stephan became the owner and co-operator of The Oriole Mill, which used pioneering, computerized Jacquard weaving technology to produce high-quality garments, blankets and quilts, and decorative fabrics.

He leaves behind a brother, Mark (Ra'anana, Israel), and nieces Ruth Leah Kahan, (Ra'anana), Jessica Rachel Shklar (Philadelphia, PA); Emily Deborah Michelson (St Andrews, Scotland); as well as nine grandnephews and grandnieces.

He supported, and would want you to support: Blue Ridge Public Radio; The Housing Assistance Corporation (Hendersonville, NC); and Pisgah Legal Services.

A small gathering of friends is contemplated.

Stephan was a Renaissance man – an innovative thinker and an iconoclast -- but he was not a rule breaker. Instead, he spent his life thinking through what the rules ought to be.