Dale M. Heien

Dale Heien, Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics, was born on August 20, 1936 in Danville, Illinois. He had a sister, Judy, who was five years older than he. His father drove a delivery truck and his mother was a school teacher. Dale was an intelligent student, but found school not very challenging at times. He spent a lot of time on his grandfather's farm nearby, forging an early connection to agriculture.

Dale was an avid Chicago Cubs fan -- his father had played minor league baseball and he and his father would frequently watch the Cubs play at Wrigley Field. The passion for baseball remained throughout his life. Dale discovered jazz in high school. He and his friends would drive to Chicago to listen to live jazz clubs. He preferred music from such groups as the Modern Jazz Quartet, Art Tatum, and Billie Holliday.

In his early 20's Dale attended the General Motors Institute with the objective of working for GM as an engineer. He soon realized that he didn't have a corporate mentality and left after a year. After leaving the GM Institute he obtained a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Illinois where he studied economics. He then obtained a Ph.D. in economics from George Washington University. After receiving his PhD. he worked at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics as chief of the Price Research Division where he worked on improving the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The experience gained at this position enabled him to eventually start his own consulting firm. He developed models of the U.S. livestock industry for the Economic Research Service and later used them to analyze the 1970-72 bout of inflation for a Presidential Commission. He served as a consultant to the Cost of Living Council and to the Administration for the GATT round of negotiations. During this time period he also presented seminars on econometrics for the Institute for Advanced Technology.

Dale met Kathryn Kayser, who was working as an economist in USDA's Economic Research Service, in 1975 in Washington, DC. They moved to Sonoma County in late 1978 and were married over the Christmas holidays in suburban Chicago. After the wedding Dale decided to explore teaching at a university. He taught at San Jose State for a year, Penn State for two years, and then came to Davis in 1982 where he was a Professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California for 21 years from 1982 to 2003.

Dale published seminal articles related to demand analyses and applied econometrics. He published in the top-ranked economic and statistical journals such as the Journal of Political Economy, the Review of Economics and Statistics, and the Journal of the American Statistical Association, and Econometrica. He also published numerous articles in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics and the Journal of Wine Economics. His papers often combined advanced theory with practical applications, e.g., with Murray Brown he proposed an "S-Branch Utility Tree" that facilitated actual empirical implementation of theoretical demand systems, and with Catherine Wessells he demonstrated the feasibility of an econometric technique that explicitly takes into account households' zero consumption of some categories of goods in demand systems.

Dale and his wife, Kathryn owned and operated three California winegrape vineyards, first in Sonoma County and later in Napa. Dale's private and professional interests coincided on this front – he truly knew of what he spoke. He grew grapes and published popular outreach articles related to the economics of the grape and wine economy along with his other research.

Professor Heien taught undergraduate courses in economic theory, econometrics and government regulation of business. He was a strong advocate of free markets based on both theory and experience. In his courses he was able to draw on his considerable knowledge of the wine industry as well as his applied research in demand analysis.

Dale loved his family. He is survived by his wife, Kathryn, and his children, Eric Heien of Davis, CA, Alex Heien of San Rafael, CA and Elisabeth Heien of Folsom, CA.

Dale Heien died at the age of 72 on June 19, 2009.

Richard Green
Art Havenner