Today would have been MNR's 80th, as mentioned here and here.
I just happened to be going through an archive of old issues of the Free Market today and found this article by Lew Rockwell for Rothbard's 60th:
March Is Rothbard Month
by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
On March 1st in New York City, through the generosity of Mr. Robert D. Kephart, the Institute threw a gala surprise 60th birthday party for Professor Murray N. Rothbard. In addition, we sponsored a conference on his work entitled 'Man, Economy, and Liberty,' which is also the title of a book of essays Dr. Walter Block and I are editing in Murray's honor.
Murray N. Rothbard was born in New York in 1926. His parents — an oil-company chemist and a newspaper editor —had met at an anti-big government ball, so from his earliest days, he was properly oriented.
He received his BS, MS, and PhD from Columbia University, and studied for more than 10 years under Ludwig von Mises at New York University. (Murray received his doctorate over the protests of Professor Arthur Burns — later chairman of the Federal Reserve Board — who, then as now, was horrified by anti-central bank writing.) Murray Rothbard is the author of hundreds of path-breaking scholarly articles and many books, including: his monumental Man, Economy, and State; America's Great Depression; The Ethics of Liberty; Power and Market; The Panic of 1819; Conceived in Liberty; The Mystery of Banking; and For a New Liberty.
A professor of economics at New York's Polytechnic University, he is also the Mises Institute's vice president for academic affairs and editor of our Journal of Austrian Economics. Not to speak of being the prime keeper of the Misesian flame.
Murray Rothbard's writing and teaching have had worldwide effect. But like his teacher Dr. Mises, he has had little of the recognition and honors given to his more statist colleagues.
His passionate commitment to liberty, Austrian economics, the free market, and the gold standard offended the academic establishment and its allies in big business and government. But this never cowed or embittered Murray Rothbard, nor hindered his incredible achievements. It only spurred him to work harder for freedom.
This magnificent teacher, writer, and scholar; this untiring activist; this joyous champion of freedom, is unique. His massive and original contributions to economics, history, ethics, political science, law, and philosophy; his integrity, courage, hard work, optimism, and humor; have made him the intellectual leader of the battle for liberty. We, and all the generations to come, have benefited immensely. It's not often that we can both do good and confound the enemy, as well as have a great time doing it. This was one of those rare occasions.
