Obituary: Frank Gery, 83, remade economics at St. Olaf

When Frank Gery arrived at St. Olaf College in 1962, the Northfield school's economics department was sort of a business skills program -- more about bookkeeping than social science. He would transform it into a bastion of modern economics, steeped in statistical analysis.

Gery, who taught at St. Olaf for 35 years, died Jan. 11 from pancreatic cancer at his home in Northfield. He was 83.

A native of eastern Pennsylvania, Gery arrived at St. Olaf with a Ph.D. in economics from Boston University and six years of full-time teaching under his belt. As a new department chief, he was given a commission by St. Olaf's top brass.

"They told him to make it a respectable economics department," said David Emery, an economist who was hired by Gery in 1969 and retired from St. Olaf last year.

Gery hired several professors with Ph.D.s -- then a scarcity in the economics department. And he restructured the curriculum, reducing the number of business offerings and requiring students for the first time to take courses in calculus, economic theory and statistics. "Frank was very empirical," Emery said.

The push toward quantitative theory was paired with hands-on assignments. Gery ushered in projects for students involving real-world business problems and government economic policies, Emery said.

William Carlson, a St. Olaf economics professor from 1973 to 2004, said Gery was committed to bringing ideas and values to economics, not just numbers. "The idea that business was just to make a profit was not something we bought into."

Gery's wife, Marie Vogl Gery, said he grew up in the Nazarene religious tradition, which stresses personal morality and concern for the poor. He was an active member of several churches over the years, including United Church of Christ in Northfield in recent times.

Gery headed St. Olaf's economics department until 1980, then continued teaching until 1997. After retiring, he and his wife focused on a bed and breakfast they opened in 1991 in an 1860s-vintage house in Dundas.

But in 2001, Gery's life was turned upside-down when he fell and broke his neck and severely damaged his spinal cord. Marie said a doctor told her he'd likely be a quadriplegic. Within a year, he was not only walking again, but Gery -- an avid golfer -- was back on the fairway, too.

Gery is survived by his wife; three children from his first marriage; two stepsons; three grandchildren; and two sisters. He is preceded in death by his first wife, Theona. Services have been held.