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An economics expert associated with the University for nearly 70 years died last week after a series of small strokes.
James W. McKie died Oct. 30 in a retirement center.
McKie's career as a Longhorn began when he graduated from high school in his hometown of El Paso at age 16. A $25 scholarship funded his first year at the University.
McKie went from the state capital to the nation's capital after college graduation, working in the Pentagon during the height of World War II.
"He graduated in 1943 and reported to boot camp within a week of graduating from college," his daughter Julia McKie said. "What a week that must have been."
After the war, McKie lectured at Williams College, Harvard University and Vanderbilt University from 1947 to 1971.
"We call those years, between 1947 and 1971, the years of exile," Julia McKie said. "He loved teaching at those colleges, but always wanted to come back to Austin and teach at UT."
He returned to UT in 1971 as a professor of economics and became dean of the newly formed College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. He also served as chair of the Department of Economics, as an economics adviser to former President Nixon and authored several books on
economics.
"People who first met McKie thought he was formidable, imposing, private and dignified," said Catherine McKie, his wife of 60 years.
James McKie met his wife at a New Year's party, and their opinions of their first encounter were somewhat different, she said.
"He said we had an instant connection," Catherine McKie said. "I did think he was very good-looking."
Catherine McKie said her husband preferred sitting at a dinner table with a few friends rather than being in a large crowd, spreading himself thin.
"He was just a very warm and light-hearted person," she
added.
His favorite topic of conversation was history, a subject he loved even in his later years, she said.
"Just the other day I asked him when the Thirty Years War began," Catherine McKie said. "He responded immediately."
Julia, her sister Ellen and her brother David all inherited their father's love of history and his intelligence, Catherine McKie said.
"There was nothing that wasn't worth learning to him," Julia McKie said. "He was a private person, but you just knew he was a force of nature."
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