John Kenneth Galbraith was not only a beloved economist, he was also a
local whose towering strides, slowing as he aged, were a common site on
Church Street, Brattle Street, and in and around Harvard Square.
There was something enormously calming about his presence, and
something reassuring about seeing him striding through the square.
He was the steward of a dependable garden of care and wisdom and
stability for the
community, both literally–wthin his sheltered yard and home on Francis Street–and
figuratively. He often had students living in his third floor
apartment. My friend Sue Lowe Franklin lived with the Galbraiths
for years. The annual garden party, timed for Harvard
graduation,
was a low-key inclusive event mixing Nobel prize-winners with activists
with students with friends. Within his professional radiance,
generations of humanistic, caring, policy-oriented economists,
historians, and public servants were encouraged. He exemplified
Eric Erickson’s “generative” person..using his magnificent talents to
establish and extend fertile ground upon which others could plant and
tend their own gardens and vinyards.
He died yesterday here in Cambridge.
