INAUGURAL AWARD
FRENCH HONORED
BY MIKE ZIGLER

Executive Vice President of Silver State Bank Doug French, who also serves as associate editor of Liberty Watch, The Magazine., received the Center for Libertarian Studies’ first-ever Murray N. Rothbard Award. The honor is given to those dedicated to the ideals of liberty in the Rothbardian tradition.

Murray N. Rothbard, who passed away in 1995, was the dean of the Austrian School of Economics and founder of libertarianism. An academic and author who played a important role in the revival of the Austrian School of Economics and in the rebirth of libertarian and classical liberal ideas during the 20th century, Murray Rothbard was, perhaps, the most vocal American-born anti-statist of the post-World War II era. 

After earning his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in 1956, Rothbard embarked on a lifetime endeavor to expand upon the intellectual contributions of his teacher and mentor, Ludwig von Mises. 

In addition to his academic work, Rothbard was an active participant on editorial pages and in the popular press. He argued that many commentators were not sufficiently attuned to the growth of government during the Cold War. Rothbard’s contention was that it made little sense to fight socialism abroad, but tolerate its growth at home in the form of an expanding welfare state.

The author of thousands of articles and 25 books, Rothbard was also French’s great teacher and mentor.

After moving to Las Vegas in 1986, French decided to go back to school and pursue a masters degree in economics in the fall of 1989. By the fall of 1990, he had taken 12 hours worth of Masters’ courses and was trying desperately to stay away from statistics and econometrics classes. After spotting “History of Economic Thought” with Rothbard as the instructor in the UNLV course catalog, French enrolled. It eventually led to a relationship where Murray served as French’s thesis advisor.

“I got to know Murray during the researching and writing of my thesis,” said French, a policy fellow of the Nevada Policy Research Institute, during his acceptance speech April 4. “But, I really still didn’t realize his greatness. To me, he was just a good guy.” 

Murray was a walking bibliography. Every time French would meet with him, Murray would consistently offer more sources for French’s project — offering not just the title, but author, publisher and often the year published.

“I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to have known Murray and have the rare privilege to study under him,” French said. “It is because of my good fortune that I feel an obligation to help ... continue Murray’s work and further his legacy.” LW