Thomas J. Courchene *67

Tom died Nov. 4, 2025, in Montreal. 

Born Sept. 16, 1940, in Wakaw, Saskatchewan, Tom completed undergraduate studies at the University of Saskatchewan in 1962 and earned a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton in 1967. He did postgraduate work at the University of Chicago. 

From 1965 to 1988, Tom was professor of economics at the University of Western Ontario. His interests were monetary policy, financial institutions, fiscal policy, economic regionalism, energy policy, trade, and migration. He was chair of the Ontario Economic Council, senior fellow at the C.D. Howe Institute, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. 

Tom went to Queen’s University in 1988 to serve as the inaugural director of the School of Policy Studies (SPS), a central hub in a national policy network of academics and policymakers. He was director of the John Deutsch Institute, director of the Institute of Intergovernmental Relations, and a senior scholar at the Institute for Research on Public Policy in Montreal. 

Twice Tom won the Donner Prize for the best Canadian book on public policy. They were The Social, Fiscal and Federal Evolution of Ontario and Indigenous Nationals, Canadian Citizens. 

Tom is survived by his wife, Margie; children Rob, Teri, and John; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.