R.I.P. | Adele Wick, Economist (1950-2015) (Updated May 8, 2017)

Adele at a screening sponsored by the R.S. Schalkenbach
Foundation, which she chaired. Photo by JT Marlin.

Adele Ernst Wick died at her home in Greenland, N.H. on Sunday, September 27, 2015.

Born in 1950, in Gates Mills, Ohio, Adele received her B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College in 1972 (my wife Alice also graduated from Wellesley in Economics six years earlier).

Adele continued her education at the University of Chicago, receiving an M.A. in economics in 1976.

Adele taught Economics at the University of Tulane in the early 1980's. The family moved from New Orleans, La., to Greenland, N.H., in 1986. She took on many volunteer and free lance assignments while she was raising her children, including work on oral histories with the family of Cyrus Eaton. Her local work in Greenland included youth soccer, Greenland Public Library and the Weeks Brick House. She also took tremendous pride in pioneering Greenland's recycling program.

Adele was greatly attached to her family
and her dogs.

Adele combined her love for friends, family, her large dogs and nature by taking frequent "walk-talks" as she would call them. She was a good listener and avoided making judgments, which made her a good board chair.

She was involved in national organizations pursuing tax reform in the interest of greater and more equitable economic development. She was a peacemaker and with that credential was elected chair of the board of the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation in New York. I served on this Board and can testify to her calming influence. Schalkenbach was the printer for, and follower of, Henry George, author of Progress and Poverty.

Adele worked with Pugwash, the peace-promoting
project started by Cyrus Eaton of Cleveland.

She took an interest in other people's projects. When my mother (Hilda van Stockum) died in 2006 she wrote the nicest thing in my mother's condolence book:

April 19, 2007. John - [...] I'm about to finish The Winged Watchman. I don't want to finish it. The story, the style, and the illustrations I savor. I particularly love the beginning, making its young readers feel the war through hunger, and the father's line about preferring to think about what people do out of church to in. I usually don't look at illustrations, but hers draw me in with their delicacy, feeling and power. Thank you for introducing me to Hilda van Stockum.

She is survived by her sister Mary Bole; her four children, Douglas Miller, Patrick Miller, Charlie Miller, and Elizabeth Miller; and her grandchild Henry Miller.

With her death, the world is a less peaceful and beautiful place. Alice and I extend our sympathy to her family.

Postscript

The obituary above was reprinted in the Georgist Journal. On the Legacy.com site connected with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, I found the following note posted that I thought I would share:

December 31, 2016

I just today learned of Adele's death. I wanted to confirm her address for a new year's card and found her obituary.
We were graduate students at the UofC forty years ago: classes together, study groups for comprehensive exams, tennis, and a lot -- a lot - of hilarious laughter.
We hadn't met or spoken since, but kept up an occasional correspondence, exchanged wedding gifts -- I think about her whenever I use the teapot she gave us -- Christmas cards, and so on. It didn't seem important when there was no Christmas card last year; we all get distracted.
Others have noted her crystalline intelligence, good humor, and friendship. Her children know those qualities better than anyone.
Please accept condolences from one of her quondam -- one of her favorite words -- friends.

Larry Morgan, Chicago, IL

- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/guestbooks/cleveland/adele-ernst-wick-condolences/176030567?view=2&entry=124853206&referrer=1#sthash.yg40VrEP.dpuf