Rexford Guy Tugwell

Rexford Guy Tugwell (born July 10, 1891, Sinclairville, N.Y., U.S.—died July 21, 1979, Santa Barbara, Calif.) American economist, one of the three members of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s so-called Brain (or Brains) Trust.

Tugwell attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, earning his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees (1915, 1916, 1922). A liberal economist who believed in economic planning, he joined the faculty of Columbia University, New York City, in 1920.

In 1932 Raymond Moley persuaded Tugwell and Adolph A. Berle, Jr., to join together in advising Roosevelt during the 1932 presidential contest. After Roosevelt’s victory, Tugwell joined the administration as assistant secretary of agriculture (later becoming undersecretary). While he was instrumental in formulating farm policy—especially the planning of agricultural output and the initiation of payments to farmers for not growing certain crops—his influence extended into nearly every aspect of New Deal economic reform.

In 1936 he left the Roosevelt administration for private business and in 1938 became chairman of the New York City Planning Commission, but in 1941 he accepted appointment as chancellor of the University of Puerto Rico. Later that year he became governor of the island, where for the next five years he tried to better economic and social conditions—a goal that led to conflict with wealthy sugar planters. From his experiences in Puerto Rico, he wrote The Stricken Land (1946).

From 1946 to 1952, Tugwell directed the Institute of Planning at the University of Chicago, where he also served as a professor of political science (1946–57). He eventually settled in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he held the post of senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions. He spent his remaining years working on a model for a new Constitution of the United States.

In 1968 Tugwell won the Bancroft prize in history for his book The Brains Trust.