Obituary: Otto "Toby" Davis / Founding father of Heinz School at CMU, innovative economist
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, May 11, 2006
By Bill Toland
Originally published at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06131/689151-122.stm.
Otto "Toby" Davis, one of the founding fathers of the nationally renowned Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University and an innovator in the combined fields of economics and political science, died Tuesday. He was 72.
The professor helped build not only the Heinz school, but also the larger university, lifting Carnegie Mellon from a regional school to one known around the world, colleagues say. Locally, he launched the Center for Economic Development, a Pittsburgh business incubator, and argued for benefits for the same-sex partners of university employees.
"He was a creative force," said Robert Strauss, a Heinz school economics and policy professor.
After graduating from Wofford College in 1956, Mr. Davis studied at the University of Virginia under James Buchanan Jr., who would go on to become a Nobel Laureate in economics. In 1960, he came to Carnegie Institute of Technology, which later became CMU, and stayed in Pittsburgh for the next four-plus decades.
Shortly after his arrival, he was recruited to develop a model for a ground-breaking school that would tackle urban and social planning issues. What resulted was a 1968 proposal -- co-written by colleague William Cooper -- for the School of Urban and Public Affairs. With a $10 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the school was born in November 1968. (Twenty-four years later, it was renamed for Sen. H. John Heinz.)
Mr. Davis would become the second dean of the school.
"There was a movement in the country at the time -- if we were so good to send people to the moon, why were we having the riots and the poverty" in urban areas, said Mark Kamlet, provost and senior vice president at CMU. Mr. Davis tapped into that movement, hoping to foster racial equality through public policy.
An e-mail circulating among CMU faculty, written by Heinz School Dean Mark Wessel, said Mr. Davis "breathed life into many of the core values which continue to animate our lives here" and "had a profound impact on this school" from day one.
He had a self-declared disregard for disciplinary boundaries, which fueled his interest in combining the studies of economics, public policy, voter trends, governmental budgeting and market forces, just to name a few of his academic pursuits. Testifying to that broad interest is his seminal work, which fell outside of the traditional realm of economics.
In 1972, he helped author "Econometrica," an equation that sought to predict how the electorate would vote, and why the majority votes the way it does. The task of improving public policy through the channel of democracy intrigued him, and led him to the Public Choice Society, a community whose goal is to exchange ideas "at the intersection between economics, political science, and sociology."
He served as the society's president from 1970 to 1972.
Family said he was hard to pin down politically -- he was socially liberal, but conservative when it came to free markets.
"Very libertarian, I'd guess you'd say," said son Craig Davis.
Mr. Davis died in Florida, awaiting a liver transplant.
He is survived by his wife, Carol, of Wilkins; his sons, Craig Davis of Chicago and Ross Davis of Connecticut; his daughter, Wendy Hicks of Virginia; and five grandchildren. A viewing is scheduled for Sunday at John A. Freyvogel Funeral Home, Centre Avenue, Shadyside, and the funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Monday at First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh on Morewood Avenue. Donations will be accepted at Carnegie Mellon or the Transplant Recipients International Organization.
Bill Toland can be reached at btoland@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1889.