Wallis (1912-) was educated at the universities of Minnesota, Chicago and Columbia. His career began as assistant economist and subsequently associate economist at the National Resources Committee, Washington, DC (1935-37). He was instructor in political economy at Yale (1937-38), assistant then associate professor of Economic at Stanford (1938-46), professor of statistics and economics at the University of Chicago (1946-62), where he was chairperson of the Department of Statistics (1949-57), and dean of the Graduate School of Business (1961-62). Later he was president (1962-70) and chancellor (from 1970) of the University of Rochester. He was special assistant to President Eisenhower (1959-61).
See list of letters .