Statue of Historic Figure: Sir William Arthur Lewis - Castries, St. Lucia

Sir William Arthur Lewis

Castries, St. Lucia

N 14° 00.525 W 060° 59.431

Short Description: 

A monument honoring the 1979 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Sir William Arthur Lewis, is located in Derek Walcott Park in Castries, St. Lucia.

Long Description:

The tiny Caribbean island of St. Lucia, population 174,000, can boast of producing two Nobel Prize recipients. Sir William Arthur Lewis received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1979, and the poet and playwright Derek Walcott received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.

The park in the center Castries, the capital of St. Lucia, has been renamed from Columbus Park to Derek Walcott Square in honor of their latest Nobel Prize recipient.

In the park is a life-size bronze bust of Sir William Arthur Lewis is set on a 5' high teal colored stone base. On the front of the base is a marble plaque which is inscribed:

SIR WILLIAM ARTHUR LEWIS

BORN IN ST LUCIA JANUARY 23, 1915

NOBEL PRIZE

FOR ECONOMICS - 1979

"A country without the Arts

is a cultural desert"

1971 Graduation Address

U.W.I. Cave Hill

DIED JUNE 15, 1991 

Obituary published in the New York Times: Web link

Sir W. Arthur Lewis, a Princeton University professor emeritus who was an adviser to several nations and won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science in 1979, died on Saturday at his home in Barbados. He was 76 years old.

Sir Arthur was considered a leading authority on economic growth and political and social change in emerging nations. He shared the economics prize with Theodore W. Schultz, a University of Chicago professor, for research into economic development "with particular consideration of the problems of developing countries."

In 1954, he published what many economists considered one of the first academic works in this area, "The Theory of Economic Growth." He also wrote 11 other books and more than 80 monographs and articles.

William Arthur Lewis was born on St. Lucia in 1915 and was educated at the University of London, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1937 and a doctorate in 1940. He taught there until 1948, when he left for the University of Manchester. He was named vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1959.

He joined Princeton's faculty in 1963 and was named the James Madison Profesor of Political Economy. He taught undergraduate and graduate courses in economic development and modern economic history.

Students praised Sir Arthur's courses for focusing on ideas rather than numbers. He retired in 1983.

He had been named an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1962.

Sir Arthur is survived by his wife, Gladys Jacobs Lewis of Barbados and Princeton, N.J.; two daughters, Elizabeth Lewis of Cranbury, N.J., and Barbara Lewis of Brooklyn; and four brothers, Stanley Lewis of Ghana, Earl Lewis of Trinidad, Allen Lewis, a former Governor General of St. Lucia, and Victor Lewis of St. Lucia.

A state funeral is planned for Saturday on St. Lucia.

Books by W. Arthur Lewis:

The Evolution of the International Economic Order
The Theory of Economic Growth.
Tropical Development,1880 1913: Studies In Economic Progress
Racial Conflict and Economic Development
Economic Survey
Growth and Fluctuations 1870-1913
Principles of Economic Planning
Labour in the West Indies: The Birth of a Worker's Movement
Overhead Costs
Politics in West Africa.
Selected Economic Writings
Development Planning: The Essentials of Economic Policy