Paul S. Nadler, a well-known banking economist and longtime columnist for American Banker, died Friday. He was 77.
Mr. Nadler spent much of his career at the Graduate School of Management at Rutgers University, starting in 1958 as an assistant professor of finance. He left in 1961 to join New York University but returned in 1964 as an associate professor of finance, becoming a full professor in 1969.
He also sat on bank boards, served as an adviser to regulators, and lectured for many years at the Stonier Graduate School of Banking.
Mr. Nadler received a bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1951, a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1953, and a doctorate from NYU in 1958.
The jovial, self-deprecating Mr. Nadler was also a highly sought guest speaker. Throughout his career he spoke at dozens of banking conferences all over the country often choosing to travel by train. Tales of his travels, including many visits with community bankers, often made their way into his work for American Banker.
He was a regular contributor to American Banker for nearly 50 years, until April 2005. His folksy columns covered a wide range of topics, from monetary policy to chief executive pay to his own frustrations with customer service. And they were frequently funny, featuring historical, political, personal anecdotes delivered in the style of a stand-up comic.
One way Mr. Nadler connected with readers was through his periodic "Schmidlap National Bank" contests. He would solicit readers views on a variety of topics, and those whose answers he liked best were named the fictional bank's president for a day.
A 1998 contest on readers' views about casual-dress Fridays drew so many responses that he devoted two follow-up columns to the topic.
Mr. Nadler also authored several books on banking, including 1968's "Commercial Banking in the Economy" and 1985's "The Banking Jungle: How to Survive and Prosper in a Business Turned Topsy Turvy," which he co-authored with Richard Miller.
