OBIT for J Thomas Romans

J. Thomas Romans passed away on February 28, 2019 at his home in Gainesville, Florida. He was on the faculty of economics at UB for 39 years, retiring in 1999. At different times, he served the Department of Economics as its director of undergraduate studies, director of graduate studies and departmental chairman. He was a graduate of Cornell University (BS), the University of Tennessee (MS) and Brown University (PhD). His dissertation won the Wesleyan University Press publication prize. His research focused on regional and state income accounting and he was a frequent consultant with the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the US Commerce Department. He published articles on a range of topics in journals such as the American Economic Review, the National Tax Journal, the Review of Economics and Statistics and the Journal of Forensic Economics, to name a few. Over his career he was a Fellow and a Guest Professor at a number of international universities, including the University of Edinburgh, the University of Otago, the University of Dortmund and the University of Canterbury.

Tom became the first economist in New York State to be qualified as an expert in the assessment of economic damages. He continued his work in the new field of forensic economics, doing research on the evaluation of homemaker services and measuring the losses of the selfemployed. His articles on these topics are still cited regularly.

Tom was a keen traveler. He took a canoe to Hudson’s Bay, hiked Baffin Island, skied the Matterhorn, tracked gorillas in Uganda, was nibbled by penguins in Antarctica, followed The Silk Road through central Asia, and ate the food in Kathmandu. He visited every continent but always returned home to spend every summer on his beloved island in northern Canada. He was always active in attempting to preserve the surrounding wilderness.

He is survived by his wife Joanne, daughter Kelly Bancroft of Syracuse, son Duncan Romans of Amherst and grandchildren Tom Romans, David Romans and Rebeccah Bancroft.