My dear friend Steve Malpezzi on John Quigley

He writes:

I first encountered Professor Quigley through his research; later, we connected through our mutual friend the late Steve Mayo. I was honored to count John as a friend, but he was also a professional and scholarly inspiration to me, and to many, many others. Professor Quigley was an active researcher and teacher for over four decades; a long career by some standards, but he left those of us who knew him, and his work, wishing we could have had a fifth, if not a sixth.

In the history of the allied fields of urban economics, real estate economics and finance, after the original generation of William Alonso, Richard Muth, Edwin Mills and John Kain, John Quigley shaped our field like no one else. The breadth of his contributions, in urban, housing, public finance, finance, and many other fields, is breathtaking.

I’m not alone in that judgment, and those of us that hold it can easily show that it’s not simply sentiment for a passed friend. Many colleagues share my high opinion of John Quigley, and have said so, unbidden, for years, long before his illness. Several years ago, for fun, I asked six PhD students to write down the name of the person who, according to their study, all-in, made the greatest contributions to our field. (I told them they couldn’t name anyone from Wisconsin, but of course that was to save face :-).

Five wrote “Quigley.” Well, it wasn’t all six, but I’m not going to stretch the truth for the sake of the story!

Read the whole thing.