John Kenneth Galbraith
Economist
Harvard economist who wrote the bestselling trilogy of American Capitalism (1952), The Affluent Society (1958), and The New Industrial State (1967). He also served as editor of Fortune magazine and had a career as a United States diplomat, serving as U.S. Ambassador to India during John F. Kennedy's presidency.
He studied agricultural economics at the University of Toronto and later received his Ph.D. in the same field from the University of California-Berkeley. During the 1930s, he taught at Harvard University.
He was the 1946 recipient of The Medal of Freedom. Nearly five decades later, he was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
He was born in Ontario, Canada to Sarah Catherine Kendall and Archibald Galbraith. He had four sons with his wife, Catherine Merriam Atwater, to whom he was married for nearly seven decades.
He worked as a U.S. diplomat under several Democratic administrations, including that of Harry S. Truman.