Leland, Simeon E. (Simeon Elbridge), 1897-1972

Leland, who died in 1972, was professor of economics and Dean, College of Liberal Arts, Northwestern University, 1946-1966.

From the description of Simeon Elbridge Leland Papers, 1918-1972. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122558214

Simeon Elbridge Leland was born on September 2, 1897 in Madison, Indiana to Simeon Elbridge Leland and Elizabeth Wood Stanley Leland. He received an A.D. from DePauw University (1918), an A.M. from the University of Kentucky (1919), and a Ph.D from the University of Chicago (1926). His doctoral thesis was titled “The classified property tax in the United States.”

Leland served as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Kentucky from 1920 to 1924, became an associate professor in 1924, and a full professor in 1926. Leland’s first appointment at the University of Chicago began in 1928. By 1940 he was a full professor in the departments of economics and political science. By 1943 Leland was chair of the department of economics, while at the same time serving as chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He left the Federal Reserve in 1947.

Leland’s other non-teaching positions included director of business research at the University of Kentucky (1927-1928), member of the Illinois Tax Committee (1933-1940), chairman of the Illinois Tax Commission (1936-1940), consultant on governmental finance and fiscal policy to the National Resource Board (1935-1936), consultant to the Tennessee Valley Authority (1939), consultant to the Budget Bureau (1940), and special assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury (1939).

In 1946 Leland left the University of Chicago to take an appointment at Northwestern University as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and professor of economics. His publications include The Taxation of Intangibles in Kentucky (1929), Division of Costs and Responsibility for Public Works (1938), and When Authorities Disagree: Financing World War II; An Experimental Technique Applied to Conflicting Views (1942).

Simeon Leland died in December 1972 in Evanston, Illinois.

From the guide to the Leland, Simeon E. Papers, 1930-1946, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)