Remembering Wendy Takacs, Professor Emeritus, Economics

The UMBC Community is mourning the recent passing of Wendy Takacs, Professor Emerita in the Department of Economics. Wendy joined the faculty at UMBC in 1976, after completing her Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University. Her retirement in 2016 marked four decades of commitment to the Department and the University.  Particularly noteworthy were her dedication to clarity and approachability in classroom exposition, her impressive range of publications, and her expert professional involvement in her research specialization of international trade.  

Wendy's excellence in teaching was evidenced by her winning the Department's "Teacher of the Year Award" some nine times, including at least once in each of her four decades of teaching at UMBC: 1978, 1980, 1990, 1992, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2008, and 2011. Such sustained recognition by generations of students is a testament to Wendy's talents as an outstanding and caring educator. Her dedication to teaching was also evidenced by the frequent sight of students lined up outside her office waiting their turn to benefit from the knowledge and encouragement that she generously offered them. Wendy's signature course on international trade was a challenging topic and called on students both to make sense of, and to utilize, complex analytical diagrams.  Aside from her research specialty, Wendy regularly taught the full gamut of economic theory courses including introductory micro and macro along with intermediate micro and macro in her regular teaching rotation. 

Wendy's years of impactful departmental service included her a key role in establishing the master's program in Economic Policy Analysis (ECPA). Wendy further served for five years as ECPA Graduate Program Director. As a colleague, Wendy was always welcoming and nurturing towards junior faculty. In departmental meetings she brought a calming and reflective influence upon the deliberations. We, her colleagues, fondly recall that Wendy was a bulwark of the Department's awards ceremonies, often supplying fresh-cut flowers from her own gardens to enhance the celebration.

Wendy's scholarly and professional involvement included not only an extensive publication record in leading peer-reviewed journals but also a wide array of influential stints with international agencies and consulting assignments. These included service as Co-director of the United Nations/World Bank Trade Expansion program (1993-95) and consultancy assignments with the World Bank in its Latin America Department, Asia Technical Department, and Trade Research group. Her students deeply appreciated the way she employed real-world examples from these various assignments to enhance her classroom presentations.

Wendy also led an active and full non-academic life. She was an enthusiastic equestrian and at one point owned horses, along with a farm of several dozen acres for grazing them. Wendy was also very active in the dog obedience community, serving as a docent as well as entering her own dogs in competition.

Wendy will be missed by the many students and colleagues at UMBC whose lives she enriched.  We offer our deepest condolences to her family.