Media Contact: Dolores Davies, (858) 534-5994

Walter Perrin Heller, a professor of economics at the University of California, San Diego, died on March 2, 2001, at the age of 59. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer.

Heller joined the UCSD Department of Economics faculty in 1974. He was previously a member of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Department of Economics. At UCSD, his activities centered on research, teaching, and campus land use planning. He was well known in the UCSD Academic Senate for his chairmanship of the Campus Community and Environment Committee, helping to direct comprehensive planning for construction and development of the campus. Among his economics students, Heller had a devoted following. Colleagues regarded him as an "economist's economist," the one you discuss problems with when the textbook won't solve them.

Heller's teaching focused on economic policy and the efficient use of resources in government services and the environment. His research, which centered on economic theory, was published in leading academic economics journals and books. Topics of his research included the stability of economic growth, the foundations of unemployment, the demand for money, and the use of markets to allocate resources under conditions where markets may fail due to incompleteness or monopoly. He served on the Executive Committee of the American Economic Association and as an associate editor for the Journal of Economic Theory.

Heller received his B.A. in mathematics from the University of Minnesota in 1964, under the tutelage of Professor Leonid Hurwicz, a well-known economist and a recipient of the U.S. National Medal of Science. He completed his doctoral studies at Stanford University with the dissertation advice of Nobel Prize winner Kenneth J. Arrow, and received his Ph.D. in 1970.

Heller was born in Madison, Wisconsin and spent most of his childhood in Wisconsin and Minnesota. His father, Walter W. Heller, was a professor of economics at the University of Minnesota and also served as chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

A devoted outdoorsman and traveler, Heller hiked and used his four-wheel drive throughout the Sierra Nevada, and he and his family traveled extensively throughout Europe.

Heller is survived by his wife, Diemut (whom he met when they were undergraduates), his two children, Nicholas (a UCSD sophomore) and Marika (a student at Frances Parker School), his brother Eric Heller of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his sister Kaaren Davis of Seattle, Washington.

A private memorial service is planned. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the Walter P. Heller Memorial Fund at UCSD. For more information please contact the UCSD Foundation at 858.534.6385.