Francis A. WalkerArticle Free Pass Francis A. Walker, in full
Francis Amasa Walker (born July 2, 1840, Boston, Massachusetts,
U.S.—died January 5, 1897, Boston), American economist and
statistician who broadened and helped modernize the character
and scope of economics. Walker was educated at Amherst College
and in 1861 enlisted in the Union Army. He was discharged with
the rank of brevet brigadier general. In 1869, after having
taught for a brief period, he was appointed head of the Bureau
of Statistics in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he
improved the use of statistical techniques. He served as
superintendent of the 1870 and 1880 censuses and expanded the
coverage of the census to more accurately reflect the
development of the United States. He was the commissioner of
Indian affairs in 1871, a professor of political economy at Yale
University (1873–81), and the president of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology from 1881 until his death. He was also
the president of the American Statistical