Robert E. Will Papers, 1953-1988 | Carleton College Archives

Robert E. Will (Class of 1950), Wadsworth A. Williams Professor of Economics (1974-1982) and Raymond Plank Professor of Incentive Economics (1982-1993), began his career in the Carleton Economics department as an assistant professor in 1957. He also served as Assistant Dean of the College from 1967-1968 and was the Director of International Studies from 1968-1970.  In 1993, he became a Professor Emeritus. During his 36 year tenure at Carleton, Bob Will championed the importance of a liberal arts education and taught generations of students the economics of developing countries. This collection documents Robert Will’s role both on Carleton's campus and in the Minnesota community as a professor, an administrator, and a consultant.

Series 1: American Studies 65 - Poverty Seminar is an example of a Carleton interdisciplinary course. The Poverty Seminar focused on the phenomena of poverty and affluence in modern society from the perspective of sociology, psychology, political science, economics, and contemporary literature. Included are recordings of class meetings, students’ journals, applications for admission into the seminar, and syllabus materials for this course.

Series 2: Economics consists of course and administrative materials from the Economics Department. Some featured materials are syllabi from Economics courses taught in the 1987/88 academic year, miscellaneous Economics examinations from that same year, correspondence between Carleton and St. Olaf on the cooperation between the two schools' economics departments, and a large file of information regarding an Insurance Executive in Residence program that was coordinated by Robert Will in 1984.

Series 3: Carleton Administration is a small collection of materials from Robert Will’s time serving on the Curriculum Advisory Committee. The primary focus of these folders is on grant funding for campus programs and independent study projects.

Series 4: First Bank Systems (FBS) Summer Executive Seminar documents the FBS Summer Program and includes administrative information about room assignments and general orientation for the participants, as well as copies of mailings that were distributed to participants. It also features complete participant notebooks for each year of the FBS program at Carleton and other related materials for courses taught by visiting scholars each year. The photographs that were interfiled in this collection have been moved to the photographic prints collection.

Series 5: Adult Education Programs focuses on Robert Will's proposed adult education programming and related grant applications.

Series 6: MN Employment Security Department Advisory Council includes one folder of correspondence and related materials from Robert Will’s time serving on this Advisory Council.

Series 7: Postcards consists of a large number of postcards written to Robert Will from 1959 to 1991. Most of these seem to have been written by students either during off-campus programs or after their graduation from Carleton.

Series 8: Miscellaneous includes one letter from A.D. Hulings regarding alumni volunteering opportunities in 1961.

** Many of the folders throughout this collection include notes written by Robert Will upon their donation to the archives (ca. 1988) that detail the nature of the materials and his motivation for including them in the files.