Chip Case, pictured here at his retirement from Wellesley College in June 2010, died recently after a long illness. Photo courtesy of Wellesley College.
Karl E. “Chip” Case, noted economist, professor, father and husband, reportedly died peacefully in his sleep in Needham on Friday, July 15, after a long illness. Case was 69 years old.
Case was born in New York City and received his bachelor’s degree from Miami University in 1968 before serving three years’ active duty in the Vietnam War. In 1976, he earned doctorate in economics from Harvard University.
Case taught economics at Wellesley College for 34 years. His research was primarily in the areas of real estate and public finance. He authored many articles, studies and books, and is most widely known for co-developing the Case-Shiller Home Price index with Robert Shiller in the 1980s.
In the years leading up to the collapse of the housing market in 2007, the Case-Shiller index famously pointed out that the ubiquitous rise in home prices was unsustainable. The index continues to be the most influential measure of U.S. property values in use and is widely considered the benchmark of U.S. home price trends.
As early as 2000, in a paper presented to the Brookings Institution, Case expressed “worry” about the increase in subprime lending.
“Chip was a wonderful guy, a marvelous human being and his work on housing was something we depended on for more than 15 years,” said Barry Bluestone, Stearns Trustee Professor of Political Economy and the founding director of the Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University. “I don’t think I’ve ever met a professor who was more loved by his students and colleagues at any university. Almost every time I was at his house there were students there. He was one of the great gentleman of our profession.”
Students and colleagues posting to his online memorial referred to his kindness, love of golf, poker, baseball, wine and country music, and his devotion to the more than 4,000 students he taught.
Cases was a long-time resident of Wellesley and is survived by his wife, Sandra, his daughter, Kristen, and two grandchildren. A memorial service at Wellesley College is planned for the fall.
