Harold Shapiro was born on June 8, 1935, in Montréal, Quebec. His father immigrated to the United States from Odessa, Russia just prior to World War I as a metal worker, but spent most of his adult life as a bootlegger, moving to Canada likely to evade the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during prohibition and starting a large, successful restaurant business. Shapiro had an identical twin brother, Bernard J. Shapiro. Although they had different interests as children, they eventually grew to be very similar in adult life, both serving as university administrators. Shapiro’s mother valued education, and his father “went along with it.” In high school, Shapiro had a strong interest in athletics, especially water polo. Without a clear academic interest, Shapiro’s father suggested he major in economics, as it was closest to business. Shapiro decided to attend McGill University and became serious about his studies after taking a class in economic history, which he found fascinating, and after meeting his future wife, Vivian Shapiro, who was passionate about her studies and planned to study social work and child psychiatry. Shortly after graduating, his father became ill and passed away, leaving the two sons to manage the family’s restaurant business for several years. They eventually sold it, which gave Shapiro the opportunity to attend graduate school. Shapiro applied to top American schools because of their reputation, choosing Princeton University based on the advice of a friend’s uncle, Louis Rasminsky (1908-1998), who served as chairman of the Bank of Canada. Shapiro completed his PhD in three years under advisor Richard E. Quandt (1930-), building a model of the Canadian economy and the behavior of the Bank of Canada.

Upon graduation, Shapiro joined the faculty of the University of Michigan as an assistant professor of economics in 1964 after being convinced by Warren L. Smith (1914-1972) that the department would allow him to pursue his research interest and teach related graduate seminars. Shapiro recalls University of Michigan’s significant computational facilities, which were critical to his research on econometric forecasting models, having learned to code on an IBM 650 as an undergraduate. During his time as a young professor, Shapiro led several projects sponsored by the Ford Foundation modeling the economies of Yugoslavia and Hungary and traveled regularly to Zagreb and Budapest during that time. After serving a three-year rotation as chair of the Department of Economics, he was asked by Michigan’s president R. W. Fleming (1916-2010) to serve as university provost in 1977 and then as president in 1980.

Shapiro became interested in public policy during his time as president of the University of Michigan, spending time with Representative William D. Ford (1927-2004) and his staff discussing issues related to student financial aid programs and the federal investment in science and technology. Shapiro was recruited to serve as president of Princeton University by then-president William G. Bowen (1933-2016), despite his wife’s lasting impressing that Princeton was too conservative of a town and their love for the city of Ann Arbor. Shapiro served as president of Princeton University for thirteen years, during which time he was appointed as vice chairman of President George H. W. Bush’s President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). Shapiro credits the success of PCAST—as well as that of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission under President Bill Clinton (1946-), for which he served as chair—to having the direct access to the president. He concludes with a discussion on the need for a critical look at the roles of universities, corporations, and government in funding scientific research and development in the context of rising investment from the private sector.

This interview was conducted remotely via Zoom.