Occupation Economist, academic Role Economist | Name Franklin Roosevelt Spouse Grace Goodyear (m. 1962) | |
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Born July 19, 1938 (age 85) ( 1938-07-19 ) Philadelphia, PA U.S. Alma mater Yale University, Columbia University Children Phoebe Louisa RooseveltNicholas Martin RooseveltAmelia Roosevelt Parents Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr., Ethel du Pont Siblings Christopher du Pont Roosevelt, Laura Delano Roosevelt, Nancy Roosevelt Ireland, John A. Roosevelt Education The New School, Columbia University, Yale University Cousins Curtis Roosevelt, James Roosevelt, Sara Wilford, John Roosevelt Boettiger, Eleanor Roosevelt Seagraves Similar People Franklin Delano Roosevel, Ethel du Pont, Anna Roosevelt Halsted, James Roosevelt, Elliott Roosevelt | ||
Franklin Delano "Frank" Roosevelt III (born July 19, 1938) is an American economist and academic. Through his father, he is a grandson of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt, and through his mother he is a member of the prominent du Pont family.
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Family
Franklin is the first child born to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jr. and his first wife, Ethel du Pont. He was born during his paternal grandfather's second term as president and his eighth grandchild to be born. After his birth, his father said, "'Battling' Frank III is a beautiful baby."
He has a younger brother, Christopher du Pont Roosevelt, born 1941.
From his father's later marriages, he has two younger half-sisters, Nancy Suzanne Roosevelt (born 1952) and Laura Delano Roosevelt (born 1959), and a younger half-brother, John Alexander Roosevelt (born 1977). He also has a younger half-brother, Benjamin S. Warren III, from his mother's later marriage to attorney Benjamin S. Warren, Jr.
He married Grace Ramsey Goodyear on June 18, 1962. They have three children, including a set of twins:
Education and career
After graduating from St. Mark's School in Southborough, MA, Frank Roosevelt received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Yale University in 1961, his Masters from Columbia University in 1968, and his Ph.D. from The New School. His dissertation was entitled Towards a Marxist Critique of the Cambridge School. His work has primarily focused on combining Marxism and capitalism in an attempt to make modern economic systems more "fair" and less prone to the "winner takes all" scenario.
In 1977, he became a professor at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York, where he was chair of the social sciences faculty from 1988 to 1990 and 1991 to 1993. He is a now professor emeritus, and continues to speak out on his grandparents' legacies.
He has referred to himself as a "radical" or "alternative" economist.
Rhona Free, one of his former students who is a professor of economics at Eastern Connecticut State University, was named in 2004 one of four U.S. Professors of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In her acceptance speech, she cited Roosevelt as a significant influence, saying, "The most important teacher I ever had was Frank Roosevelt, an economics professor at Sarah Lawrence. He’s much more interested in teaching than in testing and in encouraging than in evaluating. In his classes even an average student, as I was, can learn to think critically, express thoughts carefully, and view the world with an open mind.”
In 2004, the university awarded him the Lipkin Family Prize for Inspirational Teaching.
Politics and family legacy
Roosevelt, who lives in Bronxville, is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Manhattan Country School. In 1981, he sought tuition reform for the city's private schools.
Roosevelt led the effort to build a monument to his grandmother Eleanor Roosevelt at Riverside Park in Manhattan. The Eleanor Roosevelt Monument was unveiled in 1996.
In 2012, Roosevelt received the "Intelligence and Courage Award" from the Frances Perkins Center.
Roosevelt publicly endorsed Democrat Bill de Blasio in his successful 2013 campaign for mayor of New York City, saying de Blasio was “the only true progressive in the race.” His distant cousin, Barclays investment banker Theodore Roosevelt IV, a great-grandson of the president, supported Republican Joseph J. Lhota.