Dr. Martin Shubik '43

Dr. Martin Shubik ’43: A man of impactful professional accomplishments

He was always thinking about how to leave a better world behind him. That’s what drove his research and life’s work.

One of Pickering College’s most distinguished alumni, Dr. Martin Shubik ’43, passed away in August 2018. He will be remembered for his significant impact on economic theory, and is considered the “father of the application of game theory to modern economic theory.”

Shubik first arrived in Canada with his mother and sister as evacuees from Britain during the Second World War. His mother sent him to Pickering after finding the local schools unsatisfactory. He was encouraged at Pickering by Headmaster Joe McCulley, and teachers Harry Beer and Barney Jackson.

Shubik is fondly remembered by John Meisel ’43 in his book A Life of Learning and Other Pleasures, “...his outstanding prowess was cerebral, although he was an enthusiastic archer and, in his university days, something of a water polo star. It is impossible to rank people of outstanding intelligence on a finely calibrated scale— there are so many different kinds and manifestations—but amidst all the superbrains I have encountered, Martin places among the top two or three.”

After graduating from Pickering with the class of 1943, Shubik obtained degrees from the University of Toronto and Princeton University.

Shubik was a specialist in strategic analysis, the economics of corporate competition, and the study of financial institutions. He was a member of the Yale University faculty since 1963, and was a consultant to many major corporations and to the agencies of several governments. He also served as an expert witness in financial and economic litigation and wrote more than 20 books and over 300 academic papers.

Ann Smiley, Executive Director of Development, represented the Pickering College community at a memorial service held at Yale in March 2019. Many of the memories shared of Shubik noted the warm hospitality at his home, and the long discussions over wine and good food, where economic theories and models would be related to real-life situations. Friends and colleagues remembered his sense of humour and integrity.

One of the most revealing reflections on Shubik was from Dr. Shyam Sunder, a professor at the Yale School of Management, who summed up his approach to his work, “He was always thinking about how to leave a better world behind him. That’s what drove his research and life’s work.”

We are proud to have had a man of such impactful professional accomplishments and remembered so warmly as a “great human being” as part of the PC alumni community. Our condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.