Nicholas W. Balabkins, former professor of economics and economic theorist, passed away on Monday, May 8 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He was 96 years old.
Balabkins was a professor at Lehigh from 1957 until 1994. He was known in the Lehigh academic community for utilizing a teaching style that combined approachability and academic rigor. After retirement, he continued his research in the role of professor Emeritus.
Balabkins conducted a wide range of research and scholarship. He wrote several books and more than forty published professional articles that discussed economics through the lens of theory, history and sociology as well as statistics and technology. His most renowned work was the 1971 book “West German Reparations to Israel,” published by Rutgers University Press. At the time of his death, he had nearly completed a work on U.S. infrastructure and investment.
Balabkins retired from Lehigh in 1994. At that time, the university honored him with the Donald B. and Dorothy L. Stabler Award for Excellence in Teaching.
A 1995 article published in the Morning Call noted that the Latvian Academy of Sciences presented Balabkins with the Karlis Balodis Medal for his lifetime achievements in the field of economics. The article states that Balabkins was surprised to be named an economics laureate; Balabkins lived by the Latin motto “vive latens” – which he is quoted as translating to “live in the shadow, do your work, and never seek limelight.”
Balabkins received his undergraduate education from Georgia-Austria, Gottingen, West Germany in 1949. After World War II, he immigrated to the United States and earned masters and Ph.D. degrees from Rutgers University.