Edward Dana Durand was born in 1871, in Romeo, Michigan, and at the age of 11, his family moved to Huron, South Dakota. He attended Oberlin College and later Cornell University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1896. In 1898, he moved to California to become assistant professor of political economy and finance at Stanford. From 1900 to 1903, he served as Secretary of the U.S. Industrial Commission, an instructor in economics at Harvard University, and for a brief period, a census expert on streets and railways in the United States. Soon after that, he entered the Bureau of Corporations as a special examiner and later as the Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Corporations. In this capacity, he was the government expert on oil and transportation monopolies. He became the third Census Director on June 16, 1909. He took over the Bureau of the Census as preparations for the 1910 census entered their final phases. He managed to get things ready on schedule, to look out for the needs and interests of the Bureau, and to cooperate quietly but effectively with the Administration and Congress in the selection of census supervisors throughout the country through the political patronage process. During the years immediately after the 1910 census, he concentrated much of his energy on the preparation of census reports. He introduced a number of lasting innovations in the presentation of data and the texts of reports, but these steps also caused delays in the issuance of some of the data. Following the election of President Woodrow Wilson, on March 5, 1913, William Redfield became Secretary of Commerce. Almost immediately, President Wilson wrote to Redfield recommending the nomination of William J. Harris as Director of the Census. Durand promptly submitted his resignation to the President, which was promptly accepted. He returned to university life as a professor of economics. During World War I he re-entered the Government, serving from 1917 to 1919, with the U.S. Food Administration. He served as an adviser to the food minister of Poland from 1919 to 1921. In 1921, when Herbert Hoover became Secretary of Commerce, he brought Durand with him as an aide and have him the informal duties of a chief economist. He served as Chief of the Eastern European Division of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce and, from 1924 to 1929, served as Chief of the Division of Statistical Research in the Department of Commerce. He was a Statistical Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce in 1929, and served as Chief Economist of the U.S. Tariff Commission from 1930 to 1935. He then served as commissioner of the U.S. Tariff Commission from 1935 to 1952. He died January 6, 1960, in Washington, D.C.
From the description of Durand, Edward Dana, 1871-1960 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10679377
