Department mourns death of Prof Black

Philip Black, professor of Economics at Stellenbosch University between July 1988 and December 1990, passed away on 19 June 2015 at his home in Cape Town. Professor Black was well-loved by his students and highly respected by his peers. After his initial stint at Stellenbosch Economics, he was from 1993 contracted by the department on a part-time basis to teach and provide research supervision to postgraduate students. His association with Stellenbosch Economics was more formalised in 2002 when he was appointed as a Professor Extraordinary for a three-year period, still on a part-time basis. This appointment has numerous times been renewed and he was serving a term ending December 2016 at the time of his death.

During his career, Philip Black was also Jagger Professor of Economics and Director of the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town, as well as Professor and Head of the Department of Economics and Economic History at Rhodes University. In addition to his academic career, Professor Black held positions as Research Director of the Corporation for Economic Research (CER), of the Africa Institute for Policy Analysis and Economic Integration (AIPA), and of the South Africa Foundation. During the early 1990’s he served on the Economic Advisory Council of State President FW de Klerk and was also a member of the Committee for Economic Sciences of the Human Sciences Research Council. He served a term in a part-time capacity as Chief Economist at the Department of Economic Development and Tourism of the Western Cape Government. Professor Black was also a past Managing Editor of the South African Journal of Economics and a past President of the Economic Society of South Africa.