Charles J. Hitch (January 9, 1910 – September 11, 1995) was an American economist and
Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1965. He later served as vice chancellor (1965–1967) and president (1967–1975) of the
University of California and president of
Resources for the Future (1975-1978).
Hitch was born in
Boonville, Missouri
Boonville is a city and the county seat of Cooper County, Missouri, United States. The population was 7,964 at the 2020 census. The city was the site of a skirmish early in the Civil War, on July 17, 1861. Union forces defeated the Missouri Stat ...
to
Arthur M. Hitch
Kemper Military School & College was a private military school located in Boonville, Missouri. Founded in 1844, Kemper filed for bankruptcy and closed in 2002. The school's motto was "Nunquam Non Paratus" (Never Not Prepared).
The 46-acre camp ...
and Bertha Johnston. His brother was Thomas Kemper Hitch. He was educated at
Kemper Military School before leaving for the
University of Arizona, where he became a member of the
Delta Chi fraternity and received a
BA in economics in 1931. After pursuing graduate studies at
Harvard University during the 1931–1932 academic year, he received a
Rhodes Scholarship
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
to
Oxford University, where he received a second bachelor's degree in 1935 and the
Oxbridge MA
In the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, Bachelors of Arts are promoted to the degree of Master of Arts or Master in Arts (MA) on application after six or seven years' seniority as members of the university (including years as an un ...
in 1938. That year, he became the first Rhodes Scholar to join the university's faculty as a fellow of
The Queen's College, Oxford.
During
World War II, Hitch served as a staff economist under
W. Averell Harriman
William Averell Harriman (November 15, 1891July 26, 1986), better known as Averell Harriman, was an American Democratic politician, businessman, and diplomat. The son of railroad baron E. H. Harriman, he served as Secretary of Commerce un ...
during his special envoyship to Europe before joining the
War Production Board. He later served in the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
as an officer of the
United States Army and was discharged at the rank of
first lieutenant in 1945.
Between 1948 and 1961, he was head of
Rand Corporation
The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed ...
's Economics Division in
Santa Monica, California. While at Rand, he co-authored with
Roland McKean ''The
Economics of Defense in the
Nuclear Age''
Harvard University Press, 1960), described by the New York Times as the 'bible' for defense budgeting.
He was awarded the
UCSF medal in 1975.
As the DOD's comptroller, he was directed by Secretary Robert McNamara to produce a long-term, program-oriented Defense budget that became
USDOD's
Planning, Programming and Budgeting System (PPBS).
He was posthumously elected to the 2002 class of
Fellows of the
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.
References
Charles J. Hitchat the University of California digital archives
by
Alain C. Enthoven
External links
Biography of Charles Hitchfrom the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
1910 births
1995 deaths
University of Arizona alumni
Harvard University alumni
American Rhodes Scholars
University of California regents
Presidents of the University of California System
Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford
RAND Corporation people
Fellows of the Econometric Society
Fellows of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
20th-century American academics
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