To the Editor:

I took Tobin’s “Macroeconomics” introductory course, alongÊwith several hundred other students, in my sophomore year. I then studied “Micro” intensively with other first-rate professors in Yale’s bachelor’s/master’s program, but did not have occasion to work with Tobin again.

Nonetheless, when I contacted him almost 20 years later to ask for a recommendation to attend Oxford on a corporate sabbatical, he not only remembered me and complied with the request promptly, but then took the time to write me a personal note praising my “courage” in taking a break from my corporate law career to study international economics for a year at Christ Church, Oxford.

Needless to say, the memory of this kindness is still very much with me and probably acted as a direct stimulus to the teaching I have done for the past 12 years. So to and for Tobin I say and pray: may you have a generous and full portion in the world to come, as you had in this world.

Albert Shamash ’73

March 21, 2002