"Well, I think No. 1 … most economists would rank him among the top, probably, ... three economists," says Dr. Walden, a professor of agricultural and resource economics. "Some would even put him first of people in that profession in the 20th century. So he is well known in the economics profession.

"And he also, I think, did a lot to popularize economics. He had TV shows. He wrote a column, I believe, for one of the weekly magazines," Walden adds. "He had an ability to take economic ideas and concepts and present them in a way that the average person could understand. That’s something that I try to emulate.

"I think in terms of his academic background, a couple of highlights: One, he is the one who stressed the importance of what we call monetary policy, particularly how much money is being created by the government and how that can influence inflation," he explains. "That’s something that’s very commonly accepted now but really wasn’t held until he did it.

"Second thing I think that he did is he showed that you can have a situation in the country where you can have both high inflation and high employment. Up to then it was thought that the country had to accept a tradeoff between putting people to work and high prices. He showed that you can actually have both high inflation and high employment, but also low inflation and low unemployment.

"So clearly," Walden concludes, "he is a giant in the economic profession in this century and the last."