SR0558 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0558 LRB103 33028 ECR 62835 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of Robert E. Lucas Jr. of Chicago, who passed away on May 15, 2023 at 85 years old; and

WHEREAS, Robert Lucas was born to Jane (Templeton) Lucas and Robert Lucas Sr. in Yakima, Washington on September 15, 1937; he studied history as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago and then enrolled in a graduate history program at the University of California, Berkeley; he returned to the University of Chicago as a student under economist Milton Freidman, earning his doctorate in economics in 1964; and

WHEREAS, Robert Lucas married fellow University of Chicago student Rita Cohen in 1959, and they later separated in 1982; his later-life partner was Professor Nancy L. Stokey, with whom he collaborated on some of his research at the University of Chicago; and

WHEREAS, Robert Lucas taught at what is now Carnegie Mellon University from 1963 through 1974; he then returned to the University of Chicago in 1975, where he remained as a professor emeritus until his death; and

WHEREAS, Robert Lucas won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1995 for his work on "rational expectations"; he challenged economist John Maynard Keynes's ideas of supporting government intervention by insisting that people have rational expectations from past experiences to undermine interventionist policies; and

WHEREAS, Robert Lucas embraced supply-side economics and argued for increasing the supply of goods and cutting taxes for job growth; he was described as the economist who had had the greatest influence on macroeconomic research since 1970 by the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences; and

WHEREAS, Robert Lucas is survived by his sons, Stephen and Joseph; his partner, Nancy L. Stokey; his sister, Jenepher Spurr; his brother, Peter; and five grandchildren; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of Robert E. Lucas Jr. and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Robert Lucas as an expression of our deepest sympathy.