Charles A. Lave, a pioneering transportation economist who helped shaped some of UC Irvine’s best known programs in the social sciences as well as guiding the rise of several of the university’s larger buildings and the University Hills housing complex, has died at age 69.
Lave, who lived on campus, passed away from natural causes on May 2, about two weeks before his 70th birthday, school officials say. His death was publicly announced by the university only in recent days.
The Pennsylvania-born Lave joined the UCI faculty in 1966, a year after the campus opened in rolling pasture land in Irvine. He later held visiting faculty positions at many schools, including MIT, Harvard and Stanford. But his emotional and intellectual home was UCI, where he co-founded the Institute of Transportation Studies in the mid-1970s.
A campus tribute says that Lave was especially well known “for his carefully reasoned opposition to rail transit systems and the practice of reducing speed limits to reduce transportation energy consumption.
“Among his many “contrarian” contributions was a paper showing that constructing rail transit uses more energy than is later saved, and another showing that Californians are less dependent on the automobile than the rest of the nation. More recently Charlie played a major role in an influential National Research Council Report on the energy and safety impacts of current U.S. light duty vehicle fuel economy standards.”
UCI says Lave, who became an emeritus professor in 1999, is survived by his wife Bethany Mendenhall and daughter Rebecca.
The Economics Department has established an endowment in Lave’s memory. Click here to learn about it. The department also has created a memorial website. Click here to read it.
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In 1977 I took the proverbial “Econ 101″ (I think it was actually “4A”) from Prof. Lave and I enjoyed his class as well as his running commentary on current ecomonic issues. About 10 years ago I sent him an e-mail asking his views on a transportation topic and he provided a very friendly reponse (even though I’m sure he did not remember me). My condolences to his family and everyone at UCI.