In the spring of 1950, the famed economist Friedrich August von Hayek and future Nobel winner was appointed a visiting professor in the College of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas by President Lewis Webster Jones.
“The author of the best seller book, ‘The Road to Serfdom,’ Dr. Hayek, has been [the] Tooke professor of economic science and statistics at the University of London since 1931,” the Arkansas Traveler reported in March. “He will come to Fayetteville about March 24, and will remain through the first term of the summer session.”
Hayek had also previously taught at Stanford University and the University of Chicago.
In addition to consulting with faculty when he first arrived on campus, he gave lectures to various classes — economics, social science, business, history and government among them — during the rest of the spring and held weekly seminar meetings with graduate students.
During the first summer term, Hayek taught a course based on the book Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, by the economist Ludwig von Mises.
He also gave several public lectures. In one, he talked about his impressions of Arkansas, saying that he found its students here to be different than from other sections of the country that he had visited.
The Northwest Arkansas Times reported: “Here the students are real ‘liberals,’ according to Hayek, who explains that he uses the word ‘liberal’ in its original meaning of belief in freedom for private initiative and enterprise.”
Speaking to the Fayetteville Kiwanis Club, Hayek said the government had been playing with socialistic fired. “We had better look befoe we go any farther,” he said. “America must learn from the mistakes of Europe.”
“The University of Arkansas is an entirely new experience,” he said of his brief time at the university. “It is here that I am just beginning to know the solid core of American civilization and how it differs from Europe.”
He later told the student newspaper: “Although I feel at home in the United States because of earlier visits, the Southwest and the deep South are new to me.
“After the first part of summer school is over, I intend to travel in the South for some time in order to see the rest of the country.”
The seemingly abrupt decision on the part of a future Nobel economist to teach at the University of Arkansas for a part of a spring semester and one summer term proved to have a hidden motive. Hayek wanted a divorce from his first wife, Helen. Lax Arkansas divorce laws made the matter simpler for him. In June of 1950, a legal notice appeared in the Northwest Arkansas Times and gave a “warning order” from the Chancery Court of Washington County: “The Defendant, Helen Berta Maria von Fritsch von Hayek is warned to appear in this Court within thirty days and answer the complaint of the Plaintiff in the above cause.”
They were divorced on July 13 when Helen von Fritsch did not show up within the 30-day period. Three days later on July 16, Hayek was on American Overseas Flight 178 from New York to London. A few weeks later, Hayek married his third cousin, Helene Bitterlich. The elements of the divorce were seen as a scandal by many of the faculty at the London School of Economics, including some who would not speak to Hayek afterward. Hayek left the London School for the University of Chicago the same year.
More Reading
- “Famous Economist to Teach on Campus,” The Arkansas Traveler. March 14, 1950, p3.
- “Dr. Hayek to Visit Campus as Professor,” Northwest Arkansas Times, March 14, 1950, p11.
- Craig Base, “Arkansas Students Surprise British Visiting Professor,” The Arkansas Traveler. April 28, 1950, p6.
- “Dr. Von Hayek Is Speaker at Kiwanis Club,” Northwest Arkansas Times, May 3, 1950, p8.
- “Comeback of Churchill Is Predicted by Von Hayek,” Northwest Arkansas Times, May 5, 1950, p5.