Rondo Cameron, 1925–2001

Rondo Cameron died on the first day of the third millennium from a heart attack after a long illness. He was born in Linden, Texas, into a family of Scottish stock. He fought as a pilot during the Second World War and, thereafter, studied economics at Yale University thanks to a grant from the GI bill. After obtaining his M.A. degree in 1949, he went on to the University of Chicago, where he received his Ph.D. in 1952 with a dissertation on French investment abroad. His thesis director was Earl J. Hamilton and his research in Paris was made possible by a Fulbright grant. Rondo kept working on the themes of his dissertation, which in the end, polished and enlarged, became his celebrated France and the Economic Development of Europe, 1800–1914 (1st ed. Princeton University Press, 1961), later translated into several languages, French and Spanish among them. This monograph already exhibited what would be Cameron's trademarks: thorough research, intellectual ambition, excellent writing style, interest in banking history and in cultural factors of economic development, together with a fond love for the Old World, in particular France.