Evan Scharf has been a loyal Cato Sponsor since a friend brought him to his first Cato event back in 1989. In the ensuing years, Evan has become intensely involved in public-policy issues and has come to rely on the thoughtful and careful analysis provided by Cato’s scholars.

For Evan, economic issues are at the forefront. This is not surprising given that he started his career on Wall Street, first as a financial analyst at Loeb Rhoades and later as a general partner at Wood, Struthers, and Winthrop. Indeed, even after moving to Arizona, he stuck with finance—as a senior vice president responsible for much of Paine Webber’s southwestern institutional business for about 20 years.

As Evan sees it, our educational system has “done a good job of making sure that the public doesn’t understand the difference between a market and a command economic system.” Indeed, he notes that most people have “no independent basis on which to judge economic or historical trends, even as we lurch toward collectivism.”

Evan believes that Cato has done a “marvelous job” of educating the public. He points to David Boaz’s work on explaining libertarian principles, Dan Mitchell’s work on tax competitiveness, and Jerry Taylor’s work in exposing the fallacies of cap-and-trade and global warming. Evan also has a special fondness for what he terms the “health care twins”: Michael Tanner and Michael Cannon.

Evan believes that it is his personal burden—and Cato’s—to “attempt to educate the public in matters economic.” To that end, he has supported Cato at the Club 200 level for many years. He is now contemplating a testamentary bequest that would endow an R. Evan Scharf Chair for the Public Understanding of Economics. Evan hopes that this chair will be a powerful voice speaking for personal liberty and property rights—and against the “fascialism” that appears likely to prevail for many years.

Evan’s activism is not limited to Cato. He is also a director of the Goldwater Institute and co-founded with John R. Norton III its ScharfNorton Center for Constitutional Litigation. As Evan puts it, the Center strives to enforce the Arizona and U.S. Constitutions by “taking bureaucrats and politicians to court for overstepping constitutional authority.”

Evan has been a wonderful friend and supporter of the Cato Institute, one of the many Sponsors who have allowed us to articulate ideas about small government and the rule of law. As Evan predicts, the future may prove difficult for those who believe in personal liberties and free markets. But that is no reason to stand down. Indeed, it is a reason to intensify the debate.

And so, we thank Evan and all our Sponsors for their support.