On October 16, 1979, Dr. Theodore Schultz was announced as one of two recipients of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Schultz, a native of Arlington, South Dakota, was recognized for research on developing countries' economic development and challenges.
Schultz is a native of Arlington, South Dakota. Though destined for a career of research and study, he took a nontraditional educational path. There was a labor shortage during World War I and Schultz dropped out of
school at age 14. He later resumed his education and eventually graduated from South Dakota State College in 1927.
During advanced studies at the University of Wisconsin, he met and married Esther. For the remainder of his academic life, Esther served as his editor, and Theodore acknowledged her contributions often during his Economic Sciences lectures.
Schultz studied the agricultural economy. He theorized the relationships and imbalance between relative poverty and underdevelopment in agriculture, and how it compared with the higher productivity and higher income levels in industry and other urban economic activities.
He was interested in global improvement and progress for all nations by changes in economic and agricultural practices. Later as chair of the American Famine Mission to India, he persuaded the U.S. Government to ship meat and grain to the starving nations.
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