—3— Our Active Retirees: Paglin gets an idea, gets excited, and digs in He’s taught subjects as diverse as Platonic dialogues, economic theory, and urban policy. So who would be surprised that Morton Paglin is now a playwright? Economist to playwright seems like an example of vertical integration gone wrong. Yet Paglin, who retired from Portland State in 1990, is no dilettante: he’s hard at work on his fifth play. Two of his first four, Love Among the Fabians andThree Years, were given full productions. Three Years, an adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s novella of the same name, was mounted at the West End Theatre a year ago, and was described by Paul Haist, writing in the Jewish Review, as “exquisitely elegant theater.” “In these days of specialization, it seems odd to have an interest in both economics and playwriting,” says Paglin. “But I’ve always had broad interests, and I decided to try my hand.” Paglin’s interest in theater is shared by his wife, Joan, who has headed a monthly play-reading group for many years, and who was active in Portland theater. Long before he tried his hand at playwriting, he was an old hand at economic research—a consultant to the U.S. Census Bureau, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a Ford faculty fellow at the London School of Economics. Born in New York City in 1922, Paglin moved with his family to Florida, where he completed a B.A. at the University of Miami. In 1956 he received a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Paglin’s career reflects broad interests: intellectual history, economic theory, applied statistics, urban economics, and now playwriting. “I prefer to avoid over-specialization so I can move into new areas as my interests change,” he says. He came to Portland State in 1961. “PSU was starting some innovative interdisciplinary graduate programs,” he recalls, “and I got in on the ground floor, planning for the new Ph.D. in urban studies. Portland State College was just emerging as a university, so it was very rewarding being in on this, and I found the Northwest environment unbeatable.” Still, after two years at Portland State, he was drawn back to Berkeley by a two-year research appointment at the Center for Population and Urban Research, headed by the eminent Kingsley Davis. Subsequently, Paglin was offered a quasi-permanent research-faculty position at the center. “But Berkeley was going through the turmoil of the 1960s,” he says. “It wasn’t a good place to raise a family, so I gladly headed north for Portland.” Before his retirement, Paglin was a visiting scholar at Stanford and at Case Western Reserve. In 1994 he was invited to give a paper on the underground economy at the Yale Law School, which was later published in the Yale Law Journal. His latest paper, a collaborative effort with his son Mark, will appear in the Journal of Economic Education next August. Not surprisingly, Paglin’s plays are loosely related to economics. Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells and Sidney and Beatrice Webb—key members of the Fabian Society—were advocating a planned economy, and the intrigue and sexual rivalries in this elite group inspired his first play, LoveAmong the Fabians. It earned a grant from the Oregon Council for the Humanities and was produced at the Artists Repertory Theater. Fabians was followed by Fertility Rites, set in a Beverly Hills fertility clinic. It describes the possible human consequences of an emerging market in eggs and sperm. Old Passions/New Lives was Paglin’s first foray into Chekhov. It was an adaptation of the novella, My Life. Then came Three Years. His latest play, The Billionaires’ Lunch at McDonalds, was suggested by a meeting between Bill Gates and Warren Buffett that reportedly occurred when the pair got together over quarter-pounders to discuss Buffett’s $30 billion donation to the Gates Foundation. Paglin’s retirement isn’t all work and no play. “If you concentrate, you need only work a few hours a day,” he says. “I still have time to do other things. I get an idea, I get excited and dig in.” One of Paglin’s students from the 1960s found Paglin’s excitement infectious. He went on to complete two Ph.D.s and start a successful business. Recently, he donated $10,000 to the Economics Department, citing Paglin as providing the best educational experience of his life. “Most professors like to think they have had a long-term impact on their best students,” says Paglin, “but it certainly gives one a lift when it shows up in such a tangible form.” Morton Paglin
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