Charles Schultze Papers

Charles L. Schultze

Charles L. Schultze was born on December 12, 1924 in Alexandria, Virginia.  From 1943-1945 he served as a member of the United States Army, where he received both the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star decorations.  He earned both his Master’s Degree and Bachelor’s Degrees in 1950 and 1948 from Georgetown University.  He worked as a member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors under Presidents Truman (1952) and Eisenhower (1954-1958), and served as an Associate Professor of Economics at Indiana University from 1959-1961.  In 1960, he received his Doctorate in Economics from the University of Maryland, where he became a professor from 1961-1977.  In addition to this position, he also worked as the Assistant Director of the United States Bureau of the Budget.  He later became the director of this organization from 1965-1968.  In 1968, Schultze became a Senior Fellow of the Economic Studies Program of the Brookings Institute, where he remained until 1977.  During this time, he also took on roles as the Vice President of the American Economic Association (1975) and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Urban Institute from 1976-1977.  

In 1977, Schultze joined the Carter Administration as the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors in 1977 until 1981.  From 1981, he continued his work at the Brookings Institute until 1987, when he became the Director of the Brookings Institute Economic Studies Program until 1990.  During his tenure at Brookings he also served as the President of the American Economic Association in 1984, and from 1990 until 1996 he remained at the Brookings Institute as a Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies Program.  He became Chairman of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Census Requirements in Year 2000 from 1994 until 1995.  He became a Senior Fellow Emeritus with the Brookings Institute in 1997, and in 2000 he became the Chairman of the National Academy of Sciences Panel on Cost of Living Indexes in 2000.  He passed away in Washington, D.C. on September 27, 2016.