John Kenneth Galbraith; Popularized Modern Economics

He had already established a practice of turning over to the Harvard economics department a share of the royalties he received for other books he had written.

Political Influence

As a longtime friend of Kennedy's vice president, Lyndon B. Johnson, Dr. Galbraith was said to have been under consideration for ambassador to the United Nations when Johnson became president. This never materialized, but Dr. Galbraith was among the president's advisers early in his administration.

As the U.S. military involvement in Vietnam escalated, the relationship between Dr. Galbraith and Johnson deteriorated and eventually dissolved. By 1967, Dr. Galbraith had become chairman of Americans for Democratic Action, a leading antiwar group. In 1968, he was a key figure in the presidential campaign of McCarthy, whose candidacy helped drive Johnson from office.

In retirement from Harvard, Dr. Galbraith continued to write, travel and speak to packed auditoriums. He wrote an autobiography, "A Life in Our Times" (1981). He was host of the British-made television series "The Age of Uncertainty" and author of a best-selling book by the same name. With Soviet economist Stanislav Menshikov, he wrote "Capitalism, Communism and Coexistence: From a Bitter Past to a Better Prospect." Published in 1988, the book was a compilation of informal discussions between the two men.

In 1999, Dr. Galbraith wrote "Name-Dropping," a collection of remembrances of famous figures he'd encountered, including Harry S. Truman and Jawaharlal Nehru. He divided his time between his home in Cambridge, summers at his "unfarmed farm" in Newfane, Vt., and a chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland, where he spent winters skiing.

Dr. Galbraith was often at airports all over the world, waiting for connecting flights. Like F. Scott Fitzgerald, he enjoyed browsing bookshops for his work. Once at LaGuardia Airport in New York, he asked a clerk if she had a copy of "The Great Crash," his 1955 analysis of the 1929 stock market collapse. "Not an easy book to sell at an airport," said the clerk, looking sympathetic.

Survivors include his wife, Catherine Atwater Galbraith, whom he married in 1937; and three sons, Alan, Peter and James. Another son, Douglas, died of leukemia when he was 7.