Lasting Memories

John McMillan
1951-March 13, 2007
Stanford, California

John McMillan, a professor of economics at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, died March 13, 2007, at his campus home of complications caused by cancer. He was 56.

"John in many ways epitomized the Stanford Business School," said Robert L. Joss, dean of the school. "He was a brilliant scholar, he made important contributions to microeconomic theory, but his special talent was in applying theory to real-world issues and problems."

McMillan was born in Christchurch, New Zealand. He studied mathematics and economics at the University of Canterbury and later at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, where he earned his doctorate degree in 1978. He then taught at the University of Western Ontario before moving to the University of California, San Diego, in 1987 and then to Stanford in 1999.

He was also active at Stanford's Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.

His 2002 book, "Reinventing the Bazaar," led to a Notable Book of the Year citation from the New York Times Book Review.

"He could make economics jump right off the page and into the mind of the reader," said journalist and economics commentator David Warsh.

McMillan was also an avid mountain climber, starting when he was a youth, and led an annual five-day climb in the Sierra Nevada. He was also a rugby player. His book editor, Drake McFeely, remembers McMillan as "a New Zealander footballer who drove a slightly dinged-up little blue Miata and who was at least as comfortable talking about the Grateful Dead as he was discussing market or auction design."

He is survived by his wife, Patrice Lord; a stepson, Tim of California; and in New Zealand by his mother, Alice, sister, Jenny, brother, Murray, and their families.