Richard Lyndell Stroup

Known to his friends as Rick, he was born January 3, 1943, to Inez Kellett Stroup and Edgar Ivan Stroup, in Sunnyside, Washington. He attended Sunnyside High School and received his B.S, M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the University of Washington. In 1969 he moved to Bozeman, Montana, where he became a professor of economics at Montana State University.

He taught for more than 37 years in Montana State’s Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics and briefly served as department head. He became an emeritus professor at Montana State, as well as emeritus professor at North Carolina State University, where he taught after retiring from Montana State.

While at Montana State he became one of the originators of the New Resource Economics, the academic approach behind what is popularly known as free market environmentalism. This approach recognizes that many environmental problems stem from poorly defined or poorly defended property rights. The positive role of property rights in environmental protection is now accepted by many economists, environmentalists, and policymakers.

In 1980, Dr. Stroup helped found the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) along with his colleagues Terry Anderson, John Baden, and P.J. Hill.

During the Reagan administration, Dr. Stroup directed the Office of Policy Analysis at the Department of the Interior, which in practice meant serving as the chief economist of the Interior Department.

He became a widely published author and frequent speaker on economics, natural resources, and environmental issues. His primer on environmental economics, Eco-Nomics: What Everyone Should Know about Economics and the Environment, was published by the Cato Institute and received the 2004 Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Award.

Dr. Stroup is also recognized for introducing the public choice school of economics in a leading economics principles textbook coauthored with James D. Gwartney. Economics: Private and Public Choice. (Public choice economics applies the economic way of thinking to people in government.) The book, in its 17th edition, now includes Russell S. Sobel and David A. MacPherson as coauthors. Rick was also a coauthor of an innovative text, Common Sense Economics: What Everyone Should Know about Wealth and Prosperity.

He is survived by his wife, Jane Shaw Stroup; his sister, Margaret Allan and her husband, Larry Allan and daughters Brooke Davis and Alison Minar; son Michael Dean Stroup and his wife, Lori Taylor Stroup; son, Craig Lee Stroup and his wife, Lesa Deeds Stroup; son, David Richard Stroup and his wife, Allyssa Ward Stroup; granddaughter, Sarah Stroup Fuentes and her husband, Michael Fuentes; grandchildren, Sean Stroup, Tygren Stroup, Lauren Stroup, Weston Ward Stroup, and Calla Jane Stroup; great-granddaughter, Elise Roselyn Fuentes; and his sister-in-law, Barbara Anne Steidemann. His first wife, Sandra (née Price) Autrey, the mother of his two older sons, also survives him.

The family thanks our friend Grace Mwaura for her dedicated service over the past months.

Services will be held Friday, December 17, at 2 pm at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Raleigh.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), 2048 Analysis Drive, Suite A, Bozeman, Montana 59718, https://perc.org/donate/, or to the Economics Enhancement Fund at North Carolina State University (go.ncsu.edu/rick-stroup).

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, 300 Saint Mary's St. Raleigh, NC 27605.