Tributes flow for Sir Clive Granger

Canterbury Distinguished Professor and Nobel Laureate Sir Clive Granger has died at the age of 74 in La Jolla, California.

Sir Clive, an emeritus professor at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), was visiting the University of Canterbury in 2003 when he was announced joint recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences “for methods of analysing economic time series with common trends (cointegration)”. It was also while visiting at the University of Canterbury a year later he received the call from Buckingham Palace offering him a Knighthood.

A regular visitor to the University since 2000, Sir Clive was named the inaugural Canterbury Distinguished Professor in 2004. The title is bestowed by the University Council “to recognise the exceptionally prestigious position of occasional academic visitors to the University”.

Regarded as one of the world’s leading economists, Sir Clive’s work is credited with revolutionising the analysis of economic time series data.and economic forecasting.

Born in Wales, Sir Clive gained a PhD in statistics from Nottingham University before moving in 1974 to UCSD where he remained until his death.

Sir Clive shared the Nobel Prize with friend and long-time colleague Professor Robert Engle. The two were honoured for their work in the 1980s in developing statistical tools that have improved the forecasting of rates of economic growth, interest rates and stock prices.

Sir Clive’s work focused on non-stationary time series, which help analysts adjust their data for the long-term effects of short-term phenomenon.

News of Sir Clive’s death from a brain tumour has saddened his friends in UC’s College of Business and Economics.

Professor Les Oxley (Economics and Finance) said Sir Clive’s premature death would be an enormous loss to the discipline. 
“Rarely do you find such a intellectual giant who is also humble, approachable and willing to discuss research issues openly with anyone — student or faculty. His visits to Canterbury will be greatly missed, both in terms of the weight of intellect he brought with him and the genuinely enthusiastic atmosphere he exuded. 
“We’ll miss the note on the door, when he took his nap and the discussions about rugby, especially when the All Blacks played Wales.” 

Senior lecturer Robin Harrison (Economics and Finance) said that despite all the accolades Sir Clive was always very approachable.
“He was renowned for his generosity with his time and advice for anyone with a statistics problem, be they colleague or student. His regular two month visits to the department each year were always most enjoyable with Sir Clive taking an active part in seminars and the daily tea room discussions. His quietly spoken voice and words of wisdom will be much missed.”

Erskine Programme Manager Michelle Blackmore said the programme was pleased to have hosted Sir Clive as a Visiting Erskine Fellow in the Department of Economics in late 2000. 
“We were also very fortunate to be able to acknowledge personally his joint Nobel Prize in Economics in 2003. He is remembered as a delightful and modest man who always took the time out to say hello on his many return visits to Canterbury.”

Professor Granger is survived by his wife, Patricia, and children Mark and Claire.

June 2009