Of political economy and discipline: In Memory of Professor Emeritus John W. L. Winder

November 12, 2024 by Kate Baggott - Department of Economics

Professor Emeritus of the Department of Political Economy, John W.L. Winder was a pioneer in the field of Canadian econometric forecasting models. He died on October 23, 2024, at the age of 92 after having dedicated his life to his work, the University of Toronto, and St. Thomas Anglican Church, just 90 meters from the Department of Economics. The archives of the October 1962 University of Toronto Staff Bulletin outlined his first appointment as assistant professor of economics.

Educated at both the University of Toronto and at the University of Chicago, the Bulletin said, Winder was with the Institute for Economic Research at Queen’s University, had business experience with A. V. Roe Canada Ltd., and the Toronto Daily Star. Immediately prior to joining the University of Toronto he had been on faculty at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph.

“He was a very disciplined man,” friend Tom Hubert remembered. “Every Christmas I would give him a box of Ferrero Rocher and he would make it last by taking just one a day. I don’t know anyone who can eat just one Ferrero Rocher a day!”

Father Nathan Humphrey, rector of St. Thomas Church (also known as Smoky Tom’s) on Huron Street, remembered Winder for his discipline too.

“He attended the low mass at 8 a.m. every Sunday,” Father Humphrey remembered. “He had a bad fall a few years ago and I visited him in hospital and then in his beautiful St. George Street apartment that was full of light and overlooked the park. We spoke of his time at U of T and of his time at St. Thomas and the circles of friends he had at each.”

That discipline was reflected in his work. Winder was one of four authors, with Nanda K. Choudhry, Yedhuda Kotowitz, and John A. Sawyer, to develop the TRACE Econometric Model of the Canadian Economy first published in 1972.

“The TRACE model was under construction at the Institute for Policy Analysis when the institute was built in 1968,” remembered Professor Emeritus Thomas Wilson. “It was brought under our umbrella and completed before it’s publication. It was one of the primary econometric models we used to conduct economic policy forecasting in those days.”

In addition, Winder was well-known for his work with University of Chicago economist Harold Johnson for their investigations into Royal Commission findings on taxation that occurred just prior to the Carter Commission on Taxation under Prime Minister Diefenbaker.

In addition, Wilson said, Winder’s work as the senior advisor to masters’ students brought the department high ratings.

“Students went to him rather than to the department chair or the graduate student administrator,” Wilson remembered. “It was an arrangement that kept everyone reasonably happy.”

Balancing the demands of teaching and personal life was a skill Winder had that Wilson admired.

“There was a push from Arts & Science to have more graduate students enrolled during the summer session,” Wilson said. “Winder would agree to teach the full year macroeconomics course during the summer, then he would teach during the fall semester, but as the deal went, he could then take the winter semester off! So, he would spend the dark and dreary winter at his sister’s place in Arizona every year!”

Winder’s sister, the late Vera Moon, née Winder, was instrumental in ensuring her brother got the best education possible.

“My decision to come to U of T was a last-minute one,” Winder explained to the Defy Gravity campaign in a 2018 article. “I almost went to another university in Toronto, but my sister thankfully talked me out of that.”

Tom Hubert, who also knew Winder's sister, was unsurprised by the mention.

“Vera was much older than John,” he said. “She practically raised him and, if I am not mistaken, I think she and her husband Harold supported him through U of T.”

There was also another source of help. An entrance scholarship to University College.

“To this day I’m grateful to UC for taking me in because I couldn’t have afforded it on my own,” Winder told Defy Gravity. “I moved into residence and right away I met fantastic people, people who became friends for life.”

Long before his death, Winder endowed scholarships at the Department of Economics, University College and Rotman Commerce.

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