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Ward Curran
George M. Ferris Professor of Corporation Finance and Investments
Ward Curran first came to Trinity
as an undergraduate in the fall of 1953 and, after earning a
master’s degree and Ph.D. at Columbia University, returned to
join the faculty in 1960. He possesses what could only be
referred to as substantial institutional memory. Curran has
witnessed myriad changes at the College since the days when he
wore number 78 and anchored both the offensive and defensive
lines on the Bantam football team.
“When I was a student, Trinity,
like most colleges of its kind, was all male and almost all
white, with a handful of exceptions,” Curran says. “It was a
very paternalistic institution. The dean of students acted
more like a favorite uncle than a dean today could possibly,
even legally, act. It was a completely different era.” The
College was considerably smaller in those days, about 800
students, with the overwhelming majority from the Northeast.
Curran, who majored in history, was a recipient of the
Illinois Scholarships—which are awarded to students annually
on the basis of intellectual distinction, character,
leadership ability, and need.
Over the years, of course, Trinity
evolved into the College it is today. But that didn’t happen
without a few bumps in the road. “The late ’60s was a
difficult time to be a college professor,” Curran says. “The
Vietnam War was cataclysmic. So was Watergate. It affected
everyone—students, faculty, and administrators. There was a
real disconnect for a while between age groups and, in the
next decade or so, that changed the dynamic on campus. It
wasn’t just Trinity, obviously. It was everywhere. The world
had changed.”
Curran was originally hired by the
economics department on an interim basis. “One thing led to
another,” he says with a hearty laugh, “and I’m still here 45
years later.” During that time, in addition to his normal
teaching load, he has taken on a variety of academic and
economics-related responsibilities. He taught a course at Yale
University for almost 30 years and has also taught at the
University of Connecticut School of Law and Wesleyan
University.
In addition, he was a consulting economist to the Consortium on
Financing Higher Education and served as director of
institutional planning during the administration of Theodore
Lockwood, Trinity’s 15th president. Among Curran’s many
publications are the books, Principles of Financial
Management and An Economic Approach to the Regulation
of the Securities Markets.
“If I’ve learned anything over all
this time it’s that, basically, students haven’t really
changed that much. They still come here to be educated—they
want to learn. And that’s our job, to teach them. If we do it
well, then, we can make a difference in their lives.”
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