In Memoriam: Tribute

Hugo Sonnenschein ’61 (Photograph: University Libraries/Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation)

A renowned economics scholar and one of the nation’s most distinguished academic leaders, Hugo Sonnenschein ’61 helped shape the course of some of the nation’s top research universities.

From an early administrative role as a dean at the University of Pennsylvania to provost at Princeton to president of the University of Chicago, he was widely recognized for guiding the country’s preeminent institutions to new levels of achievement.

At Rochester, Sonnenschein was a member of the Board of Trustees from 1992 to 2017. He died this summer at the age of 80.

“Every university president should have a Hugo Sonnenschein,” President Sarah Mangelsdorf wrote in a letter to the Rochester board. “And even though I was only privileged to meet him once in person as I was joining the University of Rochester as president, he was a constant and gracious voice of support and encouragement.”

Sonnenschein arrived at Rochester as a 16-year-old first-year student who planned to be an engineer but switched to mathematics. After taking an economics course, he switched majors, studying with the late Lionel McKenzie, the former Wilson Professor Emeritus of Economics.

As an undergraduate, he met Elizabeth Gunn Sonnenschein ’61, ’62N and the two were married after they graduated from Rochester. He went on to earn a PhD at Purdue before beginning his life as an economist whose contributions in such areas as social choice, competition, and game theory established him as one of the top scholars of his generation. Beth is a retired cancer epidemiologist.

Together, they were strong supporters of Rochester’s arts programs, paricularly dance.

Leading Chicago from 1993 to 2000, Sonnenschein raised the celebrated university’s profile even higher. He oversaw increases in student applications, increases in enrolled students’ test scores, the launch of a campus-planning initiative, and the near tripling of Chicago’s endowment.

As he stepped down as Chicago’s 11th president, he told Rochester Review that he always saw himself as finishing his career as a teacher and mentor. He returned to the Chicago faculty as the Hutchinson Professor of Economics and President Emeritus.

“I’ve always missed my time as a scholar and a teacher,” he said. “As much as I’ve enjoyed my work as an administrator and as satisfying as that work has been, I’ve always felt that I wanted to end my career in the classroom.”