Kain, JOHN FORREST – Prof.; leaves behind a legacy of academic excellence, intellectual rigor, social conscience, a devoted family and a legion of friends – who will miss him dearly. He lost his courageous battle with cancer, Monday, August 4th in Dallas with his wife and family present. John Forrest Kain was born on November 9, 1935 in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Dr. Kain earned an AB from Bowling Green State University in 1957, and a MA & PhD from UC Berkley in 1961 and then served his tour of duty as a professor/First Lieutenant at the United States Air Force in Colorado Springs. Professor Kain’s revolutionary thinking in the 1960’s; was instrumental in shaping United States policy involving poverty, racial and housing discrimination. His academic works were the basis for California’s official response to the Watt’s riots of the 1960’s as well as fundamental to President Johnson’s Commission on Rural Poverty. He has acted in the capacity of consultant for numerous governmental agencies including the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Professor Kain was a member of the faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University for thirty-three years, serving as both the Chairman of the Department of Economics at Harvard and the Department of City and Regional Planning.
One of John Kain’s greatest honors was being named the Henry Lee Professor of Economics and Professor of Afro-American Studies Emeritus at Harvard. After retiring from Harvard, Professor Kain joined the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas as the Cecil and Ida Green Chair for the Study of Science and Society and Director of the Cecil and Ida Green Center for the Study of Science and Society at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD).
He is also Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Economy at UTD. He recently secured two substantial grants to continue The Texas Schools study, a large scale longitudinal investigation examining education issues. He has written or co-authored nine books, and been the member of numerous boards, councils and institutes. He has published countless scholarly articles on issues concerning transportation, housing, public policy, race, poverty and education. He has also acted as an international consultant advising numerous governments in Europe, Asia and Latin America on transportation economics. His final paper, presented in April and entitled, A Pioneer’s Perspective on the Spatial Mismatch Literature commissioned by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, is a retrospective of his lifetime body of work relating to economics, poverty and race.
This past year he also was a contributing expert to the recent United States Supreme Court review of minority access to higher education. To those who knew him, however, Professor Kain was more than just a brilliant economist and social scientist. He was a significant mentor and teacher to his many students and a nurturing senior faculty member at Harvard and University of Texas at Dallas (UTD). Professor Kain and his wife of 46 years, Mary Fan Kiracofe Kain relocated to Texas in 1996 in order to be with their extended family. He is survived by his daughters Mary Jo Kain Earle and Joanna Kain Gentsch and his son-in-laws, Doric Earle and John Gentsch. His four grandchildren including; Devan Forrest Earle and Aidan Kain Earle; Sarah Elizabeth Gentsch and Rebecca Kain Gentsch. In the past ten years his grandchildren traveled the world with him. His big sister Joann Kain Shaw and her husband Richard Shaw will miss his companionship. John Kain’s nieces and their families, Susan and Rob Shaw-Meadow, their children Elizabeth, Nathan, Erin and Katie Shaw-Meadow and his niece Nancy Shaw and Michael Olvera and their children Emily and Margaret Olvera, will miss his dry wit and the twinkle in his eye.
The world has lost a true intellectual and scholar but more importantly, we have lost one of gentlest, kindest human beings to ever grace the earth. Dr Kain will be honored with a memorial service at the Green Center Commons at the University of Texas at Dallas on August 25th 2003 at 3:00 PM. For more details; contact Janie Jury at 972-883-2555. Contributions honoring Professor Kain’s academic legacy can be made to the John Forrest Kain Scholar Fund being established by Dr. Kain’s family at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Texas Schools Project supports and conducts high-quality academic research to improve postsecondary education outcomes of students in Texas and the nation.
In the late 1980s, Kain became convinced that our school system was failing minority populations and he was determined to understand why. To do so, he successfully gained access to Texas education data. In 1992 Kain founded Texas Schools Project at UT Dallas