William H. Peterson, RIP

We're saddened to note that William H. Peterson, a longtime friend of the Cato Institute, died this week at 91.

Bill was a student of Ludwig von Mises at New York University, where he received his Ph.D. in economics in 1952. He was later professor of economics in the Graduate School of Business Administration at NYU;  Scott L. Probasco. Jr. Professor of Free Enterprise and director of the Center for Economic Education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; and Lundy Professor of Business Philosophy at Campbell University in North Carolina. He also worked in business, consulted with governments around the world, and wrote a book review column for the Wall Street Journal. In 1982, he lectured on free-market economics in Romania, East Germany, Ireland, and Canada. He wrote an essay on Mises that appeared in the 1971 book Toward Liberty: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises, edited by F. A. Hayek.

In recent years he reviewed books, including many Cato Institute books, for the Washington Times. I'm pleased to have published his article "Is Business 'Administration'?" in Cato Policy Report in 1983, in which he made the case that business is "dynamic, competitive, synergistic, literally wealth-creating"---entrepreneurial, not merely administrative---and therefore the coveted MBA degree is misnamed and perhaps wrongly taught.

Bill's wife of 62 years, Mary Bennett Peterson, died last year. She also studied with Mises at NYU. She worked as a stockbroker, a foundation officer, and a lobbyist for General Motors. She also wrote a book, The Regulated Consumer, that was ubiquitous among libertarians and conservatives in the 1970s. She criticized such agencies as the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Civil Aeronautics Board for harming consumers, helping to set in motion a policy agenda that resulted in deregulation of both airlines and trucking.