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Economist dies 3 days after winning Nobel Prize
William Vickrey has heart attack at 82
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NEW YORK (CNN) -- Nobel Prize winner William Vickrey died of a heart attack October 11, just three days after learning of the honor. On the night of the tenth, Vickrey was driving from New York to a conference in Boston when he suffered the attack, according to a spokeswoman at Columbia University, where the scholar and researcher had taught for nearly 60 years.
The 82-year-old Vickrey was pronounced dead early the next morning.
His contribution
He shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for economics with British professor James Mirrlees for their separate contributions on ways to make financial decisions when complete information is lacking. Vickrey, a Canadian-born naturalized American, spent his career crusading for innovative solutions to common economic problems of taxation, utilities and urban transportation.
Some elements of Vickrey's theories were used last year, when the U.S. Federal Communications Commission auctioned licenses for use of frequencies of the nation's airwaves.
He failed, however, to persuade New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority to use a progressive fare system to charge more for long trips than for short rides and to impose a premium fare on rush-hour travel.
Columbia spokeswoman Anne Canty said colleagues were deeply saddened at the death of the scholar but added, "We're pleased that his work was publicly recognized before he died".
Details of death
Another spokeswoman for the university, Suzanne Trimel, said Vickrey was found by a passing motorist on the Hutchinson River Parkway in Harrison, New York, about 30 miles (50 km) north of New York City near the Connecticut state line.
He was taken by ambulance to St. Agnes Hospital in White Plains, New York, where he was pronounced dead at 12:43 a.m.
Vickrey, who lived in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, about 12 miles from where he was found, is survived by his wife of 45 years, Cecile. Funeral arrangements were incomplete.
Related story:
- Briton, American win Nobel economics prize - October 8, 1996
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