Post Graduation - Gap Year

After graduating from the University of Colorado in 1964, I did not proceed directly into graduate study. Although many of the strongest business students sought positions at firms such as IBM, that path held little appeal for me. I chose to remain in Boulder and use the year to clarify my academic direction through applied work. During this period, I conducted residential real estate appraisals for Unger while assisting William Miernyk, one of the leading figures in input-output analysis, with applied regional economics. I participated in a large regional input-output study of the Green River Basin, which involved extensive fieldwork to collect primary data used to construct the technical coefficients of the input-output tables.

By the time graduate studies began in 1965, I was already deeply embedded in the Boulder academic community and familiar with the faculty. The combination of applied economic work, close mentorship, and the broader intellectual environment reinforced my decision to pursue graduate training there.