Arthur E. Nilsson Papers, 1931-1959 | Oberlin College Archives

Nilsson, Arthur E. (1900-1985)

Arthur Edward Nilsson was born on July 22, 1900 in Boston, Massachusetts to Charles Edward and Emma Julian Nilsson. He grew up in Boston and attended school there after some army service in World War I. Nilsson studied Civil Engineering and played varsity football at Tufts University. Upon graduating with his Bachelor’s Degree in 1922, he married a girl from Arlington, Massachusetts, Una Mae Chappelle (b. May 3, 1901). He pursued his business interest by attending the Harvard University Business School. He earned his M.B.A. in 1924; and, continuing his graduate education, a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University in 1931.

In 1924, Nilsson entered academic life as an Assistant Professor of Business Economics at the College of William and Mary. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1925 and remained at William and Mary until 1927. During his tenure there he also served as assistant football coach. In Virginia, he was also a licensed practitioner of civil engineering. In 1927, Nilsson moved to Yale University as an Instructor of Political Economy and a Ph.D. candidate, studying under Irving Fisher.

Before completing his degree in Economics in 1931, he accepted an appointment in 1929 as Associate Professor of Economics at Oberlin College. He was a member of a small, five or six member department. Early on, Nilsson added to his academic experience with summer terms as a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon from 1929 to 1931. Nilsson brought his practical experience as a consultant to the classroom, especially in his accounting and public finance courses. Colleague Ben Lewis and his wife, Gertrude, were among Nilsson’s closest friends at Oberlin. Nilsson remained a professor at Oberlin for twenty years, rising to the rank of Full Professor in 1938.

Nilsson’s tenure at Oberlin ended in 1948, when he became a Professor of Finance at the Cornell University Graduate School of Public and Business Administration. He offered courses in financial management, investment management, and other aspects of corporate finance. For fifteen years, Nilsson coordinated the finance week session of Cornell’s Executive Development Program. He was recognized at Cornell for his teaching ability and the practical knowledge of both the public and private economic sectors with which he supplemented his courses.

Like many academicians in business and economics, Nilsson divided his time between teaching and consulting work, especially before and during World War II. Nilsson’s first government work was as an Economist for the Ohio Governor’s Tax Committee in 1930-31. He was Head Security Analyst for the Securities Exchange Commission from 1934 to 1937, where he developed procedures that remained the standard for the next five decades. During the War, Nilsson served in the Navy War Adjustment Program at the Harvard Business School. There he taught four-month courses to soldiers preparing for officer duty overseas. He specialized in contract termination procedures. He also served at the War Asset Administration and the Office of Price Administration. In the private sector, Nilsson was a consultant to the Cooperative GLF Exchange, Inc. (later Agway, Inc.) for 21 years, with additional consulting to Mohawk Airlines (later USAir) and P&C Food Markets. Nilsson also completed one year of law school at Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio in 1932-33.

During his professional career, Nilsson was a member of the American Economics Association and other professional associations. He authored two major governmental reports: A Study of Delinquent Taxes, An Address before the Eleventh Annual Conference of the Ohio Tax Association (Columbus, Ohio, February 24, 1931); and, A Study of Low Rate Taxes on Intangible Property in Various States and Probable Yields of Such Taxes if Applied in Ohio (Ohio Governor’s Taxation Committee: Committee on Research, 1930). He also co-authored two textbooks: Investment Disclosures published by Harper, and Corporation Finance co-authored with Andrew Stevenson and published by McMillan. He was a frequent contributor to National Tax Magazine.

After Nilsson was named emeritus from Cornell in 1970, he moved to Cohasset, Massachusetts to a house he had restored over many years. Nilsson was an accomplished woodworker who enjoyed remodeling his homes both in Cohasset and in Oberlin. In Cohasset, he became a board member of the Cohasset Historical Society and the Old Goats Club of the South Shore, an old timers’ social club. He also pursued an interest in the Civil War that he had developed during his time in Virginia, where he surveyed Civil War battlefields, uncovering lost markers.

He died in Cohasset on September 20, 1985, leaving his son, Arthur Edward Nilsson, Jr. (b. 1927), six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. He was preceded by his wife, who attended Oberlin from 1929-30, and his daughter, Una Mae, who graduated from Oberlin in 1945, married an Oberlin V-12 student soldier in 1946, and died of cancer on November 21, 1965 in Washington, D.C.

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