by Benjy Berkowitz ’18, Staff Writer 

Newark Academy has plenty of alumni to be proud of. For example, take Richard Adeleye, the famous soccer player, or Chris Jacobs, NA’s most well-known Olympian, who medaled in the 1988 Summer Olympics for his record-shattering performance in the 4 by 100 freestyle relay. However, Newark Academy churns out much more than Grade-A Muscle Men – every once in awhile, a Hollywood heartthrob emerges from our newly renovated David Teiger ‘47 Gallery for the Studio Arts (of course, the most notable being Moonrise Kingdom star and all-around great guy, Jared Gilman ’17). But for a school of such academic excellence, it seemed that there was a glaring absence of world-renowned scholars leaving the school.

That is, until Richard Thaler ’63 came along.

Born on September 12, 1945, in East Orange, New Jersey, young Richie was destined for doing great things from a young age. He realized his love for economics the minute he walked into his first Econ class at Newark Academy. He, of course, excelled in the class – his teacher often recalled him saying things such as: “I’ll be damned if I don’t win the Nobel Prize for Economics while using psychology to shed light on how people make economic decisions,” and “What’s for lunch?”.

After scouring the web for days (four, to be exact) I couldn’t find a single instance of Thaler even mentioning Newark Academy, or attributing any ounce of his success to it.So, why not? Could it be the fact that he missed three classes Senior Year? Was it a freshman hazing scandal he was caught up in? Did Ms. Galvin confiscate his backpack one too many times? There’s little doubt in my mind that it’s anything but the last one. He clearly values his higher education more, but who can blame him? I suppose that the University of Rochester is what led him to become the genius he is today.

But, even after he turned his back on them, the high-ups of Newark Academy became absolutely star struck when they heard the big news. Honestly it was a little embarrassing.

Why’d they do this? Do they not have any integrity? Are we really that desperate for acclaim? Did they want the bragging rights of being the only independent school in New Jersey to have had a Nobel Prize recipient pass through their halls? Regardless, his name sure looks great hanging in front of our school.