October 1, 2001

Contact:

Sarah Ray

802-443-5794

sray@middlebury.edu

Posted: October 1, 2001

MIDDLEBURY,

VT - Middlebury College has established the David K.

Smith ‘42 Chair in Applied Economics, and named Professor of

Economics Michael P. Claudon to the newly created chair.

Claudon’s five-year appointment began on July 1, 2001.

The chair

was established in honor of Professor Emeritus of Economics

David K. Smith, Known as “D.K.,” Smith was a member of the

Middlebury College economics department from 1950-1987 and

is a resident of Middlebury and Pittsford. An undergraduate

economics major and a member of the Middlebury College class

of 1942, he received four graduate degrees from Harvard,

including a master’s in economics, a master’s in business

administration, and a doctorate in economics. During a

hiatus from his graduate studies, Smith taught at Lake

Forest College. He also taught at Tufts University while

earning his doctorate. He then joined the department of

economics at Middlebury, where he served as department chair

for 15 years.

During the

early 1970s, Smith created a course in environmental

economics and, for many years, was advisor to all

environmental studies majors whose focus within that

discipline was economics. Smith also served for 23 years as

a consultant to Central Vermont Public Service Corporation,

and as a member of the Vermont State Council of Economic

Advisors for four Vermont governors: Philip Hoff, Deane

Davis, Thomas Salmon and Madeleine Kunin. He has served on

numerous state commissions, advising the governor and

legislature on energy and tax issues. Smith is the author of

textbooks on money, banking and accounting.

“David found

the Middlebury curriculum in economics focused almost

entirely on theory. He believed that theory should be

combined with practice, so that the work of the mind should

be combined with the instincts of the heart. In its place he

shaped the contours of our present curriculum in economics,

which combines a unique approach to the study of industrial

competition, the corporation and corporate finance with

rigorous economic analysis,” said Middlebury College

President John M. McCardell, Jr.

Reuben Mark,

a member of the Middlebury class of 1960 and chairman and

chief executive officer of Colgate-Palmolive, and Julie

Johnson Kidd, a member of the Middlebury class of 1967 and

president of the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation,

established the chair in honor of Smith’s

work as a

teacher and mentor. Reuben Mark was a student of Smith’s

while at Middlebury. Kidd was a member of a book club

organized by Smith and his wife Carol, a member of

Middlebury class of 1943.

“Words

cannot describe how much this chair means to me … There

are 43 other endowed chairs listed in the Middlebury

catalogue. Only one of these chairs is in the name of a man

who was both an alumnus of the College and a full professor

on its faculty. The 44th chair is the only one named for one

who is an alumnus, served on the faculty, and was alive at

the time the chair was created. That to me is especially

unique,” said Smith.

Claudon is

an economist, international consultant and entrepreneur. In

1970, he was hired as a member of the Middlebury College

economics faculty while Smith was serving as department

chair. In 1987 Claudon co-founded the Geonomics Institute.

During his presidency of the institute from 1987-1995, it

was an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization of

business people, policy makers and researchers who worked to

accelerate economic and political transition in the former

Soviet Union and to develop business there. Since then, the

institute has become a part of Middlebury College and has

been renamed the Center for International Affairs.

Claudon has

served as a consultant in several capacities for both the

Russian and Lithuanian governments. From 1991-1995, he was

an advisor to the Resource Secretariat of Russia’s Federal

Commission on Securities. Claudon has also worked as an

unpaid advisor to the Lithuanian Ministry of Agriculture on

matters of domestic and foreign trade policy formation.

He is

currently developing an alliance with Vilnius University of

Lithuania, where he teaches, and also consults on issues

related to teaching and economics curricula. Claudon has

authored or edited almost two dozen books and more than a

dozen articles. He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics

and zoology at the University of California in Berkeley and

his doctorate in economics at Johns Hopkins

University.