ECU economics celebrates 40 years
Remembering beginnings, continuing excellence, service
- Alumni say economics training helped prepare them for careers in banking, dentistry and other professional fields.
- The department has grown from its founding faculty to 17 faculty members and five emeritus faculty.
Economics has evolved many times since the founding of East Carolina University, but one thing that remains constant — 40 years after the department’s formal establishment — is the dedication and service to students and the expanding professional community.
Early on in ECU’s history, economics courses were taught within the Department of Social Science. In the 1960s, these courses were transferred into the School of Business to support the Mater of Business Administration degree. By the 1985-86 academic year, economics had established its own undergraduate degree program, with an expanding number of majors.
In 1986, due to the increasing need for an economics program that would reflect the university’s existing strengths in regional issues such as coastal resources and healthcare, the Department of Economics was formally established within Harriot College.
Establishing a Department
The opportunity to start a new Department of Economics drew Dr. Carson Bays, of Grand Prairie, Texas, to ECU in 1982 after eight years of teaching at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle.
Dr. Carson Bays served as economics’ first department chair from 1986-2003, and he continued to teach at ECU until his retirement in 2011. (Contributed photo)
“I felt very proud,” Bays said. “I enjoyed the opportunity to work with outstanding faculty who specialized in different branches of economics. I also appreciated being able to teach students about my fields of interest, including regulation, law and economics, and health economics.”
Bays served as the department’s first chair from 1986-2003, and he continued to teach at ECU until his retirement in 2011. He hired the first of many professors for the department, including Dr. Lester Zeager (1986-present), Dr. John Bishop (1988-present) and the late Dr. Randall “Randy” Parker (1986-2018).
“Over the years, the department grew and changed but always maintained a faculty and staff dedicated to excellent teaching and important research,” Bays said.
Dr. Richard “Rick” E. Ericson, professor emeritus, served as the second chair of the department from 2003 to 2012. He continued teaching in the department until his retirement in 2020.
As department chair, Ericson said he enjoyed the general camaraderie and cooperation within the department, and watching the faculty develop as significant researchers in their fields. He also noted that he learned that leadership requires directing agreement and harmony among others.
“Leadership is as much about eliciting and nurturing consensus as it is about selecting, coordinating and guiding the group toward desired objectives,” he said.
Since his retirement, Ericson enjoys reading, working on his Russian language fluency, following developments of the economies of eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (in particular, Russia), and traveling to visit family and to explore other parts of the world.
Growth, Ambitions of a Department
Zeager, Bishop and Parker were a handful of people hired into the economics department in 1986, which has now grown to 17 faculty members and five emeritus faculty.
Dr. Lester Zeager was hired as one of the first professors in the Department of Economics in 1986 and still teaches at the university today. (Contributed photo)
“The message during our [Zeager and Parker] recruitment and at the first faculty meeting was that the new department would serve as a model of what the College of Arts and Sciences would look like as ECU evolved into an institution that expected faculty members to do research,” Zeager said. “The challenge was heightened by the reality that we had no senior faculty members to carry the burden of committee assignments. We had major committee responsibilities and advising duties from day one.”
The chance to help establish a department from the ground up was a selling point for Zeager.
“The unique opportunity to build the department from scratch, including making decisions about who to hire, was what attracted me to ECU,” he said. “I thought that if we made good hiring decisions, the reputation of the department would improve over time. Indeed, that is what happened, and working with the colleagues we were able to hire helped me to accomplish more than I could have imagined when I started my career at ECU.”
Even after 40 years at ECU, Zeager’s connection with his students and participation in the department and university’s ambitions and growth keep him eagerly coming to work day after day. He also admires the leadership and growth new faculty exhibit.
“Earlier in my career, I thought the time to retire would be when I could no longer connect with the new cohorts of students, but that has not happened yet,” he said.
“Looking back, I’m grateful for the courage to try things that I was not at all sure that I could do,” Zeager said. “That has been the story of ECU as well. From before the time that I arrived, ECU has aspired to things that were considered beyond its reach at one time, like Division I sports, a medical school and R1 status. It has been wonderful to work in an environment of aspiration.”
Alumni Experiences
East Carolina College (ECC), as it was still known until 1967, provided John Osborne (’69) with the economics, accounting, business law and statistics courses that led to his 41-year career in the banking industry.
After serving four years in the United States Coast Guard, Osborne enrolled at ECC in 1965 when the student population was approximately 8,700.
“One of my favorite economics professors was Dr. Louis ‘Buddy’ Zincone, Jr.,” Osborne said. “Dr. Zincone’s classes were very challenging and entertaining. He had a good sense of humor and he always wore a bow tie.”
Dr. Victoria Hardy McGowen, a general and forensic dentist in New Bern, was fortunate to purchase her dental practice early in her career and attributes that ability to her ECU economics undergraduate degree. (Contributed photo)
Osborne said he also took an English composition class taught by Dr. Keats Sparrow, who later became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He said he liked Sparrow and enjoyed the challenging class. Sparrow told the class there would be no A’s at the end of the semester, and Osborne said his grade was the most satisfying B he ever got.
A few years later, Osborne graduated from ECU with a degree in business and a concentration in economics. He was hired by First Union National Bank in Charlotte as a manager trainee for a group of 16 new bankers.
“A general understanding of economics was a good background for my entry into the banking business,” Osborne said.
Osborne continued to advance in his career, and in 2012, he retired as senior vice president and manager of retail credit underwriting for First Citizens Bank, headquartered in Raleigh.
Dr. Victoria Hardy McGowen, a general and forensic dentist in New Bern, was fortunate to purchase her dental practice early in her career and attributes the skills that gave her that ability to her economics undergraduate degree. She earned four degrees at ECU, including a Bachelor of Arts in economics (’14), Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in biology (’14 and ’16), and a Doctor of Dental Medicine (’22).
Hardy McGowen knew from middle school that she wanted to be a dentist, and she said her economics and biology degrees gave her a strong footing for her current practice.
“I’ve always had a love for science and business, and a dental degree would be the perfect way to tie those two passions together,” she said. “To be successful in that endeavor, economics and biology were great foundations to help me get toward that end goal.”
She liked the smaller, more intimate feel of her economics classes, and said they were more collaborative. Her economics classes made her solve problems, especially in Zeager’s “Games and Decisions” class, and really helped her understand the business side of dentistry.
“At ECU’s School of Dental Medicine, we took a few courses in business administration, but each dental practice is so unique that understanding even the basics of economics gives a leg up,” she said.
Current and Future Goals
Dr. Tisha Emerson is a professor and current chair of the Department of Economics.
Dr. Tisha Emerson, who came to ECU to chair the department in 2023, said, “Serving as chair of the economics department, I get to work with faculty who are both productive researchers and skilled teachers. It has been a pleasure to highlight the impressive contributions of these humble faculty members.”
Emerson believes the faculty and courses in economics help students acquire the skills needed for a successful career.
“Studying economics builds critical thinking skills, which prepare students well for a wide array of careers and helps them to be more informed citizens,” she said. “Economics, as a major, also consistently performs well on earnings and return on investment studies.”
As Emerson continues to serve the department, faculty and students at ECU, she said she has a few goals for the future of the department. One of these goals includes establishing two new endowed economics scholarships in the next three to five years.
“I would also like to see the department continue to actively engage students and help them to flourish, contribute to the body of knowledge through impactful scholarship and serve the community in meaningful ways,” she said.