Belfer Center Tributes to Martin Feldstein

Following the passing of Martin Feldstein on June 11, Belfer Center Director Ash Carter shared tributes to Feldstein from several members of the Belfer Center community. Feldstein served on the Belfer Center's Board of Directors.

Colleagues,

We have lost a great friend and colleague with the passing of Marty Feldstein. Marty had been a vital part of the Belfer Center for years, serving on our board of directors, co-teaching classes with some of our faculty, suggesting and challenging ideas at Center seminars with his brilliant mind and dry wit on issues ranging from his beloved economics to security, China, Russia, and many other critical areas. Our hearts go out to his wife, Kate, and family. 

Several members of the Center who have known and worked with Marty over the years share their thoughts (below).

Harvard is planning a memorial service for Marty in the Fall. We will send details as we have them.

Best,

Ash Carter

Graham Allison, Douglas Dillon Professor of Government and former Director, Belfer Center

“Marty and I became friends when we were both at Oxford five decades ago and remained close over the years. From our initial venture as a joint investment account to an ongoing conversation about the economics and politics of China, we teased that by putting our minds together, we might aspire to do 'political economic' analysis. Last month when I returned from an annual meeting in China that he usually attended, I went over to his house to report on what I’d learned. Though his body was failing, his mind remained lucid to the core.

Shortly after I became director of the Center and established the internal board, I invited Marty to join. He was a regular. Indeed, he constituted our project on the ‘economics of national security’ and for almost a decade taught a course taken jointly by HKS students, many of them military, and PhD students from the economics department.”

We have lost a pillar of sanity and soundness in analyzing major challenges to the nation and the world.”

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Nicholas Burns, Roy and Barbara Goodman Family Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations and Faculty Chair Future of Diplomacy and Europe Projects, Belfer Center

“Professor Marty Feldstein was one of the most important and influential economists of the last half century. He was a committed public servant and distinguished official. He was also a vital force for good at Harvard and a wonderful friend and colleague. We will all miss him very much.”

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Jason Furman, Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy and Faculty Affiliate, Belfer Center

“Marty was a role model to me. He was kind and generous. Advocated hard for the public policies he believed in, but taught, mentored and advanced people without regard to his own views. He was interested in everything and formed his understanding not by living within a narrow model but by combing models, data and real world experience. He felt it was just as important to explain economic policies as it was to develop them. It is hard to imagine a world where I can’t continue discussing and debating the latest economic policy developments with him.”

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Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor and member of the Board of Directors, Belfer Center

“Marty was a great economist, both in theory and in policy. But even more important, he was a great human being, combining brilliance with kindness and gentle humor. We will miss him deeply.”

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Robert Stavins,  A.J. Meyer Professor of Energy & Economic Development and Director, Harvard Project on Climate Agreements

“The passing of Marty Feldstein should remind us of a time – not long ago – when leadership positions on economic policy in the Executive Office of the President, such as Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, were frequently occupied by giants from academia – Marty Feldstein in the Reagan administration, Joe Stiglitz in the Clinton administration, Greg Mankiw in the George W. Bush administration, and Alan Krueger in the Obama administration, to name just a few.  Let’s hope that Marty’s passing does not mark the end of an era in that regard.”

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Lawrence Summers, Charles W. Eliot University Professor and member of the Board of Directors, Belfer Center

“Marty taught the best economics course I ever took and years later taught more than 10,000 undergraduates introductory economics.  I learned from him what good and generous teaching was all about….

For Marty, economics was a calling, never an intellectual game or a political tool. He represented the best in our profession and brought out the best in all those whose lives he touched. It has been the privilege of my professional life to follow in Marty Feldstein’s wake. Rest in peace my mentor.”