Richard T. (Richard Theodore) Ely

Born in Ripley, New York, in 1854, Richard T. Ely studied at Columbia and later earned a doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. He became one of the best-known American economists of his time, teaching at Johns Hopkins and then at the University of Wisconsin, where he helped shape the spirit of public-minded reform often linked with the "Wisconsin Idea."

Ely wrote widely on economics, labor, taxation, and social reform. He believed that economic life should be judged not only by profits, but also by its effect on ordinary people, and he supported measures such as labor protections, compulsory education, and limits on child labor.

He was also a prolific author whose books and essays reached far beyond the classroom. Though some of his views remain debated, his work played a major role in the rise of American institutional and reform economics, and he remained an influential public voice until his death in 1943.