F. A. Harper

Floyd Arthur "Baldy" Harper

Austrian School
Born	February 7, 1905(1905-02-07)[1] Middleville, Michigan
Died	April 21, 1973(1973-04-21)[2]
Nationality	United States
Influences	Aristotle, Aquinas, Böhm-Bawerk, La Boétie, Burke, Chodorov, Hayek, Wilder Lane, Laozi, Locke, Mencken, Menger, Mises, Molinari, Nock, Oppenheimer, Rand, Say, Schumpeter, Spencer, Spooner, Tucker, Turgot, Murray Rothbard
Influenced	Murray Rothbard, W.M. Curtiss, Paul Poirot, Ivan Bierly, Ellis Lamborn[2]

Dr. Floyd Arthur "Baldy" Harper (February 7, 1905 – April 1973), was an American academic, economist and writer who was best known for founding the Institute for Humane Studies in 1961.^{[3][4][5][6][1]}

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Institute for Humane Studies 4 Legacy 5 Works 6 References 7 External links

Early life

Harper was born and raised in Middleville, Michigan and graduated from Michigan State University. ^{[3][4][5][6][1]} He went on to obtain a doctorate in agricultural economics from Cornell University. ^[7] Economist Herbert J. Davenport was influential to Harper during his time at Cornell. ^[7]

In 1930, Harper married Marguerite Kaechele. The couple had four children: Barbara, Harriet, Helen, and Larry. ^[7]

Career

Harper was a professor of marketing at Cornell University for 19 years. ^[7] In 1946, he left academia and helped Leonard Read start the Foundation for Economic Education.^{[5][8][6][9][1][2]} Harper served on the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education until 1958, when he became a co-director of the William Volker Fund, a position he held until 1961. ^{[10][11][12][6][2]} In the early 1960s, Harper served as a visiting professor of moral philosophy at Wabash College. ^[7]

Harper was a member of the Mont Pelerin Society, and was present at the group's first meeting, along with Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig Von Mises, Milton Friedman, and Karl Popper. ^[5][6][1]

Institute for Humane Studies

Harper founded the Institute for Humane Studies in 1961 in Menlo Park, California.^[3][4] IHS was originally housed in Harper's garage. ^[13] Harper initially served as the secretary and treasurer of IHS. ^[7] He became the Institute's president in 1966, a position he held until his death. ^[10] According to the Institute for Humane Studies, "Harper set up an institute devoted to research and education in the conviction that greater understanding of human affairs and freedom would foster peace, prosperity, and social harmony." ^[14]

Charles Koch, who currently serves as chairman of the board of the Institute for Humane Studies, has said that Harper's book, Why Wages Rise, has been influential to his philosophical framework. ^[15]

Upon the Institute's 50th anniversary in 2011, three of Harper's children, Helen Harper, Larry Harper, and Barbara Keith, served as members of the honorary host committee. ^[16]

Legacy

Ronald Hamowy of the Cato Institute wrote that "Harper's main contribution was as a strategist of the libertarian movement, an institution builder, and a mentor to hundreds of classical liberal scholars."^{[3][4][5][6][1]}

At his death, Harper was eulogized by economist Murray Rothbard.^[2]

In 1978 and 1979, the Institute for Humane Studies published Harper's collected works in two volumes. Charles Koch wrote the tribute section. Koch wrote that, "Of all the teachers of liberty, none was as well-beloved as Baldy, for it was he who taught the teachers and, in teaching, taught them humility and gentleness."^[7]

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University established the F.A. Harper Professorship in Economics, a position currently held by Christopher Coyne.^[17]

In October 2011, Coyne co-authored an article entitled War and Liberty: Wisdom From Leonard E. Read and F. A. ‘Baldy’ Harper. The article reviews the main themes of Harper's anti-war pamphlet In Search of Peace [1] and argues that Harper's ideas are as important and relevant today as they were 60 years ago.^[18]

Works

• Harper, F.A.; Pearson, Frank (1945). The World's Hunger. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. pp. 90. http://books.google.com/books/about/The_world_s_hunger.html?id=OO1IAAAAMAAJ. 
• Harper, F. A. (1948). High Prices. Irvington, New York: Foundation for Economic Education. pp. 71. http://books.google.com/?id=b7kvAAAAYAAJ&q=High+Prices+harper&dq=High+Prices+harper. 
• Harper, F.A. (1949). Liberty, A Path to Its Recovery. Foundation for Economic Education. ISBN 978-0910614955. http://www.fee.org/doc/liberty_a_path_to_its_recovery/. 
• Harper, F.A. (1957). Why Wages Rise. Foundation for Economic Education. ISBN 978-0910614054. http://mises.org/resources/3064/Why-Wages-Rise. 
• Harper, F. A. (1969). The Crisis of the Free Market. Chicago: Johnson. pp. 83. http://books.google.com/?id=Ix5LtwAACAAJ&dq=The+Crisis+of+the+Free+Market. 
• Harper, F. A. (1979). The Writings of F. A. Harper. Arlington, Virginia: Institute for Humane Studies. ISBN 9780896170001. 

References

External links

• The Writings of F.A. Harper, v1
• The Writings of F.A. Harper, v2

Persondata
Name	Harper, Floyd
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 7, 1905
Place of birth
Date of death	1973
Place of death