1943-2010
If you take a walk over to the SFU
Bennett Library, take a hard left when you go through the entry,
and then walk for about 50 meters, you'll come to a wall that has
photos of professors
who have won the SFU University Teaching Award. The first picture on that wall is of Peter Kennedy.
Peter was one of the first professors hired in the department of economics when the university first opened. He was just 25 years old, already with a Phd in hand. He wrote his thesis over a summer, golfing every morning. He was a very smart man, and made significant academic contributions to the field of econometrics. Although Peter taught all over the world, he remained an SFU professor his entire career.
His real gift was as a teacher. Over the years Peter taught literally thousands of people around the world, and no one took his classes without learning a tremdous amount and without coming to have great respect for the man. His book "A Guide To Econometrics" is a universal standard for every student who ever had to take graduate econometrics.
I met Peter in the Summer of 1982. Myself and about six other students were taking Econ 435. The class met for 1 three hour block and another two hour block every week. I wondered how I was ever going to sit through a class that long with such a boring subject matter. Peter came in the first day, sat down in the front, and just started asking questions. When every single one of us got the first
question wrong he simply said "go home, think about it, and let me know next time what the answer is." Then he just asked another question! He never answered a single question that entire semester. If there were going to be answers, we had to come up with them ourselves. It was a life changing experience, and I can tell you I was never bored.
I did ok in that class, an A-. For me that was a very low mark, but Peter said to me at the time "I know what you know, and I think that mark is appropriate." I had to agree with him. Peter was very no nonsense. However, I'd actually learned so much in the class that in graduate school my highest marks were always in econometrics. I recall the econometrician Charles Nelson asking me years later " tell me again why you're not going to be an econometrician?" He just didn't know my secret was I'd learned every thing under Peter. Later in life I would jokingly tell Peter, "why couldn't you have taught me more!"
I try to teach like Peter. I like to ask questions, I try not to be an "answer machine", and I try to keep my eye on the goal: the transfer of valuable content. I know, however, that I'll never come close.
Peter retired in 2009, and given his healthy lifestyle he planned on living a long time. However, just one year later after a swim and a bike ride, he died of a sudden heart attack. Ironically, only months earlier I had been walking out to the parking lot with him after work and he said to me "If I were to die today, I'd be ok with that. I've had a great life." Well, Peter made life greater for a lot of other people too.
who have won the SFU University Teaching Award. The first picture on that wall is of Peter Kennedy.
Peter was one of the first professors hired in the department of economics when the university first opened. He was just 25 years old, already with a Phd in hand. He wrote his thesis over a summer, golfing every morning. He was a very smart man, and made significant academic contributions to the field of econometrics. Although Peter taught all over the world, he remained an SFU professor his entire career.
His real gift was as a teacher. Over the years Peter taught literally thousands of people around the world, and no one took his classes without learning a tremdous amount and without coming to have great respect for the man. His book "A Guide To Econometrics" is a universal standard for every student who ever had to take graduate econometrics.
I met Peter in the Summer of 1982. Myself and about six other students were taking Econ 435. The class met for 1 three hour block and another two hour block every week. I wondered how I was ever going to sit through a class that long with such a boring subject matter. Peter came in the first day, sat down in the front, and just started asking questions. When every single one of us got the first
question wrong he simply said "go home, think about it, and let me know next time what the answer is." Then he just asked another question! He never answered a single question that entire semester. If there were going to be answers, we had to come up with them ourselves. It was a life changing experience, and I can tell you I was never bored.
I did ok in that class, an A-. For me that was a very low mark, but Peter said to me at the time "I know what you know, and I think that mark is appropriate." I had to agree with him. Peter was very no nonsense. However, I'd actually learned so much in the class that in graduate school my highest marks were always in econometrics. I recall the econometrician Charles Nelson asking me years later " tell me again why you're not going to be an econometrician?" He just didn't know my secret was I'd learned every thing under Peter. Later in life I would jokingly tell Peter, "why couldn't you have taught me more!"
I try to teach like Peter. I like to ask questions, I try not to be an "answer machine", and I try to keep my eye on the goal: the transfer of valuable content. I know, however, that I'll never come close.
Peter retired in 2009, and given his healthy lifestyle he planned on living a long time. However, just one year later after a swim and a bike ride, he died of a sudden heart attack. Ironically, only months earlier I had been walking out to the parking lot with him after work and he said to me "If I were to die today, I'd be ok with that. I've had a great life." Well, Peter made life greater for a lot of other people too.