Permalink Submitted by Chris Foreman (not verified) on Tue, 12/13/2016 - 3:49pm
Tom and I were colleagues in the School of Public Policy (or Public Affairs as it was known when I signed on in 2000). His was a mind as kind as it was brilliant.
Long after I had been hired I told Tom that we had briefly chatted in Harvard Yard, back in 1978, during his long and distinguished tenure as the Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy. As his name and photo had cropped up from time to time (on books, in magazines, in the campus newspaper) I knew who he was even though I had never taken a course with him. I had read his book "Arms and Influence" for a course.
I happened to see him shortly after the great scholar of organizational behavior, Herbert Simon, had won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Economics. I approached and asked: "So, what do you think of Herbert Simon winning the Nobel in Economics?" He smiled and said simply: "I was of course very pleased, considering that I nominated him." Oh!
When I told this story to Tom, over dinner, many years later (but before his own Nobel in 2005) he was surprised that I remembered it. He didn't of course.
My reply: "Well OF COURSE you are going to remember someone telling you that they nominated a person for the NOBEL PRIZE and the person WON!" He just smiled at that.
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