Remembering Bill Tongue, His Contributions to NABE

Upon learning of the death of past president William W. Tongue, NABE members paused to remember his contributions to NABE during its formative years and to share recollections of their professional association and friendship. Tongue was NABE’s fourth president, serving from 1962-63, and he was honored as a NABE fellow.

Tongue’s family notified NABE that he died on March 7, of complications from a stroke. He was 91 years old and had most recently lived in Arlington Heights, Ill., near Chicago.

Long after his official retirement, Bill Tongue remained active in NABE and attended annual meetings, including the 2002 meeting in Washington, D.C. Many members recall talking with him then and during the intervening years, keeping in touch with a friend and mentor.

At the time he served as NABE president, Tongue was chief economist for the Jewel Tea Company, then based in Chicago. He held the chief economist post from 1944 until 1964, when he returned to academia as professor of economics and finance and head of the Department of Finance at the University of Illinois-Chicago. As a consultant to LaSalle National Bank, he wrote a forecasting newsletter for the bank.

NABE President Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist of LaSalle Bank/ABN AMRO, knew Tongue from working with him, as well as through NABE. “I had the pleasure of working with him here at LaSalle, and he was a fine economist and a great gentleman. He came to our past Presidents' dinner a few years ago, and it was a treat to see him and hear from him,” Tannenbaum said.

Others who worked with Tongue at LaSalle recalled how his “down to earth” personality and sense of humor often carried the day when a stormy economy made forecasting difficult. Several friends and professional colleagues shared similar recollections. “Bill was a sea of calm in sometimes tumultuous market conditions,” said William Finley, senior managing director, ABN AMRO Asset Management. “Bill made a long-term call, looking out for a decade, that inflation would gradually recede to acceptable levels. This was certainly not the consensus view as many forecasters expected us to continue to live with high inflation. Bill proved that you could be a ‘good guy’ and still forecast the economy with a high degree of accuracy.”

Cherished Friend, Mentor to Many

Harvey Rosenblum, NABE president from 2001-2002, was among those whom Tongue encouraged to join NABE and then served as a mentor early in his career. “Bill Tongue was one of my true heroes. Bill was a mentor to the person (Karl Scheld) who hired me three times and mentored me for the first 15 years of my career,” Rosenblum said. “I still remember to this day Karl having Bill over to the Chicago Fed for lunch and Bill saying to me: ‘Harvey, why is it you never got involved in NABE? I really think you should.’ That was all I needed and two years later I made it to my first NABE annual meeting and became hooked.”

Diane Swonk, who served as NABE president from 1999-2000, remembered Tongue as “a gentle man with a big heart, and a endless love for economics. He will be missed."

Calling Bill Tongue “a treasured friend who will be carried in the memories of all who knew him,” former Business Economics Editor Ed Mennis remembered him for his dry wit and many other skills. “He was an avid monetarist and always was sure that the gospel according to Milton Friedman was somehow inserted into discussions of the economic outlook,” Mennis said.

Tongue received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1947. Early in his career he worked for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services. A 1972 trip to European financial capitals served as the basis for a book Tongue wrote on “How We Can Halt Inflation and Still Keep Our Jobs,” published in 1974.

To George James, NABE’s sixth president, the death of Bill Tongue means the loss of “a dear and valued friend and a down-to-earth economist.” And it also has a personal meaning for James, as he put it in his message to NABE staff: “His death does another thing in my life. I believe it moves me up to be the oldest surviving NABE president, not an illuminating fact, but still a fact. Dolph Abramson was first followed by George Cline Smith, Bill Butler, Bill Tongue, Dick Everitt, and then me.”

Each of these early presidents, many of them founders, crafted the shape of NABE at a time when persons bearing the title of “business economists” comprised a small group and were often brought on board in a public relations function, according to the 112-page history of NABE, published in 1989. The book chronicles the organization’s origins and its first 25 years as the National Association of Business Economists. (The name was changed in 1997 to the National Association for Business Economics—retaining the acronym NABE.)

According to the book, in late 1962, when Tongue was president, NABE published its first membership directory. It contained 575 names in that fourth year of its existence compared with the 322 members at its start in 1959.

A remembrance from Gil Heebner, NABE president from 1975-76, captures the sentiment of many who have shared their reflections: “Bill Tongue merits our highest recognition. As a business economist, he was a true professional. And to many of us, he was a valued friend. I shall miss his saying that as long as he lived he would remain the oldest past president of NABE. It is sad that he has relinquished that title.”

Memorial gifts can be sent to the William W. Tongue Scholarship Endowment at the Univ. of Chicago, c/o Noel Salinger, 5801 S. Ellis Ave., Office #306A, Chicago, IL 60637.

NABE News
Pam Ginsbach, Editor
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