CB Faculty/Staff Directory : Richard S. Mack

Name:	Richard (Moose) S. Mack, PhD
Position:	Emeritus Professor 2008 Economics
E-mail:	mackr@cwu.edu

Dr. Richard "Moose" Mack is retiring Summer Quarter 2008 after thirty-six years with Central Washington University’s Department of Economics. His grade books reveal three decades of dedication; teaching 10,146 students in the subjects of principles, micro-theory, environmental economics, economic research, managerial economics, business statistics, comparative systems, history of economic thought, and economic history. He has also taught in CWU’s Environmental Studies, Resource Management, and Douglas Honors College programs, and has also had visiting professorships at Janus Panonius University in Hungary, Dublin City University, Ireland, and in several programs throughout London. By his estimate, he has graded 40,584 exams and told over 88,000 jokes and puns while lecturing. Of these thousands of jokes, only four were censored by deans, provosts, or presidents.

Throughout his teaching years, Dr. Mack has encouraged students to take advantage of their college experience and to open their minds to learning as much as possible about the depth and breadth of mankind’s culture and experience. Citing his own experience—that his general education as an undergraduate was the most important learning experience of his life—he urges students to enthusiastically engage in their general education. Not one for small gestures, he regularly explains to his young scholars, "On choisit le paysage de son ame—one chooses the landscape of one’s soul."

A resolute believer in a “real world” approach to learning, Dr. Mack opens each class with the question, “What’s in the news?” He has frequently taken students to sites of economic activities: conferences, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, government offices, and private sector firms. CWU students have also accompanied him on research and learning trips to China, Ireland, England, Scotland, and Morocco. He secured student funding for many of these trips from local and federal sources; most recently, funding has been granted from the National Science Foundation, the Lancy Foundation, and the Casten Foundation.

Dr. Mack has undergone a number of rebirths in the economics field. Trained at Dartmouth College and Colorado State University in International Economics and Regional Economics, many of his publications are in journals specializing in regional development, energy economics, resource use, public utilities, the history of thought, as well as the economies of Ireland, the EU, and China. He has published thirty-two articles in juried journals, several dozen research reports, and a number of chapters in books. In the private sector, he has been a charter board member of two community banks.

Throughout the spring & summer quarters of 2008, a collection of Dr. Mack’s academic work was housed in the display case located at the east end of the dean’s suite in Shaw-Smyser Hall. Once he leaves the college setting, he plans to focus on reading, consulting, and contemplating, as well as indulging in some mechanical tinkering and sculpture.