FMU’s 16th annual Moran Address presented by Dr. Ben Kyer

Dr. Ben Kyer, professor emeritus, delivered the 16th annual William C. Moran Address at the Francis Marion University Performing Arts Center in downtown Florence on Thursday.

The Moran Address is a platform for retiring or recently retired faculty to reflect on their academic journey and share insights from their field and life experiences. Kyer’s address, A Lucky Man, took a look back at his life and all those who had a profound impact on him.

Kyer received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Glenville State College in 1977 and earned both his Master of Science in Economics and Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from West Virginia University.

Kyer joined the faculty of Francis Marion in 1989, where he served for 35 years. During his tenure at the university, he taught a wide variety of courses at the graduate and undergraduate levels including Principles of Microeconomics, Principles of Macroeconomics, History of Economic Thought, Money and Banking, International Economics, and Managerial Economics.

In 1993, he was named Distinguished Professor at FMU, the highest honor bestowed upon a member of the faculty. He was appointed a Board of Trustees Research Scholar in 2016 and held the Benjamin Wall Ingram, III endowed chair in economics from 1996 until his retirement in 2024. Kyer was Director of the MBA Program from 2000 until 2013, Coordinator of Economics from 2001 to 2020, and served on the MBA Committee, the School of Business Promotion and Tenure Committee, the Graduate Council, and the Distinguished Professor Selection Committee.

In addition to his teaching, Kyer made significant contributions to economic research, publishing forty-four articles in about twenty different refereed journals. Some of his papers include “On the Keynes and Pigou Effects in Aggregate Demand Theory,” “Supply-Side Economics and the Price Level Elasticity of Aggregate Demand,” Economic Expansion and the Balance of Trade: The Role of Aggregate Demand Elasticity,” and “On Indexed Bonds and Aggregate Demand Elasticity.” He also presented papers at more than twenty-five conferences of the Atlantic Economic Society.

The Moran Address has been an FMU tradition since 2005 and is named after Dr. William C. Moran, FMU’s Vice President of Academic Affairs from 1978-1992. Moran, who went on to become president of Lander University after leaving FMU, is remembered for his many civic, academic, and cultural contributions to South Carolina. He was presented the Governor’s Award in the Humanities in 2008.

The Moran Address is made possible thanks to a generous endowment from the Moran family.

To watch Kyer’s address, click here: https://youtu.be/vXY9qaG3F-M?si=C75qcEni_A8HgId0