Professor Emeritus Gene Gruver, who retired in 2012 after a 40-year career in the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Economics, died Sept. 29, 2024, at 82.
David DeJong, senior advisor to the chancellor, recalls Gruver as a well-established teacher and researcher when DeJong arrived in the department in 1999; Gruver had joined in 1970. He was “the kindest, gentlest, most thoughtful person you will ever meet,” DeJong said. “Around the department he was a positive, helpful guy,” and a mentor in DeJong’s early days.
“For students, he was very nurturing, very generous with his time — a strong contributor to our teaching mission,” DeJong added.
Professor Emeritus Jack Ochs was a departmental colleague from Gruver’s earliest years. “We became friends,” Ochs said, “and in fact I would be hard pressed to know anyone who was a gentler person, a person more interested in the well-being of others. He was a calm person that I never heard speak harshly about anybody — just a fine individual.”
Lester A. Zeager, now an economics professor at East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C., was a graduate student under Gruver.
“The first word that comes to mind is humble,” he says of his mentor. “I can't recall ever seeing him engaged in self-promotion. He was approachable, always welcoming … and open to learning new perspectives. He treated everyone with respect and dignity and cared deeply about his students. He was more interested in their development than in his own success. So you can imagine that his students loved him.”
“His special talent,” Zeager adds, “was modeling economic activity in a tractable and practical way. An economy is a very complex thing, and to boil it down to something we can get our minds around, you have to build a model around it. He always reminded me that the model and the reality were not the same. He applied that talent to a wide range of problems,” from development in poor countries and environmental problems in rich countries to the possibilities in new technologies.
“In all applications,” Zeager says, “the goal was to improve our understanding and make the world a better place for the people in it.”
Zeager grew up in a rural, isolated Mennonite farming community outside of Lancaster County, Pa., and Gruver — growing up in Kansas farming country with Mennonite neighbors — was able to help Zeager adjust to the new environment, he recalls. In fact, Gruver took it much further, introducing Zeager to international students: “He was eager to make the connection. That was a stretching experience for me.
“My wife and I have taken up that concept and work on making our (East Carolina) university more friendly to internationals,” he says. Today he is advisor for international student associations there, and has extended this work to the city of Greenville. “My wife and I are really following in the footsteps of Gene and his wife Marcia. The way he looked out for people coming from other cultures, he became a model for me.
“My appreciation for him runs deep,” Zeager says, hoping “the things he instilled in me are still bringing credit to him, even after his passing.”
Gene William Gruver was born on March 25, 1943 in Scott City, Kansas and in 1966 married Marcia Speer Gruver, who preceded him in death.
He earned his bachelor of arts in mathematics from Southwestern College and his master of science and Ph.D. in economics from Iowa State University.
At Pitt, his research and teaching focus was on environmental economics, economic development and quantitative policy modeling. He studied the environmental impact of the steel industry and the role of the introduction of new mini-mill technology in regional economic development and regional environmental quality. He was also a Fulbright professor in Kenya and a faculty member and academic dean for the University’s Semester at Sea program.
He is survived by children Candice Kail and John Gruver; grandchildren Camille, Allyson, Andrue, Evan, Gwen, and Alexandra; siblings Arlita Hummelke, Royce Gruver and Norval Gruver, as well as many nieces and nephews.
Memorial gifts are suggested to First United Methodist Church of Pittsburgh or to the Children’s Home of Pittsburgh.
— Marty Levine