September 10, 2012 9:50AM 

# The Grim Reaper is Relentless — Unfortunately 

By [Steve H. Hanke](https://www.cato.org/people/steve-h-hanke) 

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Last October, the Grim Reaper cut down my long-time colleague and friend, [Bill Niskanen — Chairman Emeritus of the Cato Institute](https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/william-niskanen-memoriam). If Niskanen’s loss wasn’t bad enough, I learned in April that I had lost another friend and brilliant economist, [Ralph Turvey](http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/apr/22/ralph-turvey). On September 14th, we will celebrate Ralph’s life at the Reform Club, in London. For this event, I prepared the following, a “remembrance.”

> I feel as though I cut my economic eye teeth on “Turvey.” Yes, I even wrote two articles with titles that contained the word “Turvey:”
> 
> - [“Project Evaluation During Inflation, Revisited: A Solution to Turvey’s Relative Price Change Problem”, Water Resources Research, Vol. 17, No. 6, December 1981.](http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/1981/WR017i006p01737.shtml)
> 
> and
> 
> - [“‘On Turvey’s Benefit-Cost ‘Short-Cut’: A Study of Water Meters”, Land Economics, Vol. 58, No. 1, February 1982.](http://ideas.repec.org/a/uwp/landec/v58y1982i1p144-146.html)
> 
> 
> But, my favorite remembrance of Ralph wasn’t from economics, per se. Once, after Ralph had abandoned his regular duties at LSE in the 1960s, I asked him why he still embraced the title, “Professor.” He immediately replied, and with twinkle in his eye: “Well Steve, in London, the title ‘Professor’ can still pull the first table in a proper restaurant.”
> 
> 
> We both then had a very good laugh and resumed our intense discussion on the beauty of water meters.

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