Jim joined King’s as a Fellow in Economics 1977. He studied at the London School of Economics obtaining a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Economics. He came to Cambridge in 1976 as an Assistant Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics after a stint as a Lecturer at the University of Glasgow. He was promoted to a full Lecturer at the Cambridge Faculty of Economics in 1979. In 2002 Jim took early retirement from both the Faculty and from his Official teaching Fellowship at King’s. That same year the College elected him to a Life Fellowship.
From 1977 to 2002 Jim was one of most important faces of the teaching of economics at King’s. During this period, he was a Director of Studies in the subject and taught macroeconomics at all levels in the College. His undergraduate lectures at the Faculty were widely acknowledged by students at the time to be amongst the clearest and best organised courses in the Economics Tripos.
Jim was interested in macroeconomic issues such as inflation and unemployment. His later works were mainly concerned with the evolution of ideas in macroeconomics. His academic publications included several well-known texts: The Economics of Inflation (1975), Inflation: A Guide to the Crisis in Economics (1977, second edition 1980), Involuntary Unemployment: Macroeconomics from a Keynesian Perspective (1992). These texts were widely used for undergraduate teaching and were translated into many languages (e.g. Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Japanese).
Jim was extremely committed to the College, was Praelector in the early 1980s and served as University Proctor.
He lived in College throughout his Fellowship and will be remembered very fondly by many of his students and colleagues at King’s.
Remembering Jim Trevithick - his wake
In accordance with Jim’s will, his ashes will be interred in the crypt of the Chapel in a private ceremony, immediately following his funeral in a side chapel. These will take place on Thursday 19 June.
Although Jim instructed in his will that there should be no memorial service, he did provide for a wake, and this will take place in the Fellows’ Garden from 6.00pm to 8.30pm on the day of his funeral. (College Hall in the event of inclement weather). All are welcome; entry to the Fellows’ Garden is directly from Queens’ Road. If you would like to come please register via this link.
Also that day Jim will be remembered at the Sung Eucharist in Chapel at 5.30pm, and anyone who would like to attend this service is very welcome and can reserve a space by e-mailing kings.chapel@kings.cam.ac.uk
