Hillsdale College Announces New Walter Williams Chair in Free Market Economics
HILLSDALE, Mich. — Hillsdale College announced the creation of its new Walter Williams Chair in Free Market Economics on Nov. 14. Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn and Chairman of History Mark Kalthoff announced the creation of the chair and named Associate Professor of Economics Roger Butters as the first chair holder.
“I knew Walter for just about 40 years,” Arnn said. “I don’t know anybody who didn’t love Walter Williams. He was a free man — freed himself by his mind and his character. He was a thinker, a teacher, a husband, and a father, and there are no higher stations. We remember Walter Williams with great respect.”
Stephen Moore, an economist, author, and senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, also spoke at the event.
“Walter was amazingly influential and was a giant in so many ways,” Moore said. “What Walter was so great at was saying things in a simple way that made people understand the free-market concepts that many of us write whole textbooks about.”
Moore said that Williams respected Hillsdale College and would have approved of the endowed chair named after him. “I don’t think there’s any other university, besides George Mason University where he was a professor, where Walter Williams would’ve wanted this endowed chair,” Moore said.
The chair is named after the late free market economist, author, and commentator Walter Williams, and is funded to honor James Herbert McGraw, the co-founder of McGraw Hill Publishing.
Williams’ daughter, Devon Williams, spoke during the event and shared some words about her father’s role as an educator. “He would consistently remind me, his students, and his wider audience of the basic principles, no matter how advanced we became,” she said.