Peter Kenen, economist
Peter B. Kenen, 80, of Princeton, a leading international economist and an expert on the Eurozone, died Dec. 17, 2012. Born in Cleveland, he also had lived in New York City and Teaneck.
Dr. Kenen, the Walker Professor of Economics and International Finance Emeritus at Princeton University, taught at Princeton from 1971 until 2004, and continued to teach part time after his retirement until 2011. Earlier he taught at Columbia University from 1957 to 1971, and became chairman of the Economics Department and then university provost, taking that post after the turbulence of the student protests of the late 1960s.
He was a founding member of the Group of Thirty, a member of the Bellagio Group of Officials and Academics, and was also a member and former fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations.
He was a consultant to the Council of Economic Advisers, the Office of Management and Budget, the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He served as a young economist on President John F. Kennedy’s Task Force on Foreign Economic Policy.
His four decades in Princeton were devoted to teaching, writing, and running the International Finance Section from 1971 to 1999, where he edited and published numerous landmark monographs. He also published many books and articles.
He earned his BA summa cum laude in 1954 from Columbia University, where he had a weekly radio program on the college station WKCR covering the young United Nations.
He earned his MA (1956) and PhD (1958) at Harvard and was a research student at the London School of Economics in 1956-57.
He spent much time fishing on the Jersey shore.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Regina H.; three daughters, Joanne (Ken Cohen) of Bethesda, Md., Stephanie of Arlington, Mass., and Judith (Jim Gordon) of Atlanta; his son, Marc (Leslie Fisher-Katz) of South Hadley, Mass.; and five grandchildren.
Services were held Dec. 19 with arrangements by Orland’s Ewing Memorial Chapel, Ewing. Memorial contributions may be made to Undergraduate Financial Aid at the Columbia College Fund, 622 West 113th St., MC 4530, New York, NY 10025; or Secure@Home of the Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Mercer County (www.jfcsonline.org/secure@home.html).
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