Born on the Isle of Wight, a small island off the south coast of England, where King Charles I was imprisoned, Queen Victoria lived, and Tennyson wrote poetry, Gordon Philpot enlisted in the Grenadier Guards. British army service took him to Korea, Singapore, Australia, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland.

In the last three—today’s Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi—he was attached to the King’s African Rifles.

Upon coming to the United States, he received a B.A. degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Now a Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Whitman College, he lives in Walla Walla, Washington.