Willard Thorp

Willard Long Thorp (May 24, 1899 – May 10, 1992) was an American economist and academic. He served three US Presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower as an advisor in both domestic and foreign affairs. He helped draft the Marshall Plan and was also prominent in business and education.

Biography He was born on 24 May 1899 in Oswego, New York. He was raised in Chelsea, Massachusetts and Duluth, Minnesota. He graduated Amherst College in 1920. In 1939 he was elected as a Fellow of the American Statistical Association. a member of the U.S. delegation serving as special adviser on economic matters at the Paris Peace Conference of 1946; and American representative to the United Nations General Assembly, 1947–48.

He came under great strain during the McCarthy 'witch-hunt' investigations into alleged Communists 1950–1954 and eventually resigned, becoming a professor at Amherst College again instead. In 1957, he served for a number of weeks as interim president of the college.

He died on 10 May 1992 in Pelham, Massachusetts.

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