Bob Tollison died unexpectedly today at the age of 74. While many readers of mises.org may not be familiar with him, he was one of the most inventive, prolific, and impactful scholars of our generation. As the current leader of the public choice school his wide-ranging contributions certainly qualify him as a Potential Nobel prize winning economist. He was an internationally recognized authority on topics such as rent seeking political behavior and anti-trust economics. His groundbreaking extensions of economic analysis into “non-economic” areas include the economics of politics, the economics of religion, the economics of art, and he is the creator of what is known today as Sportometrics.
In addition to his loving family, Bob leaves behind a generation of successful students and co-authors around the world. A southern gentleman in every sense, Bob was born in South Carolina and ended his career as a professor at Clemson University.
Many years ago while staying with the Tollison’s at their home in Washington DC, I noticed a copy of Ludwig Von Mises’s book Human Action in his home office library. I asked him if he had read the book. He replied with a small smile “hasn’t everyone?”
