Martin Weingartner, who taught finance at Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University for two decades and was known as the academic conscience of the school, died May 6 in Nashville. He was 85.
A memorial service is set for July 5 in Benton Chapel on the Vanderbilt campus. Guests will gather at 10 a.m., with the service starting at 10:45 a.m.
Weingartner was born in Heidelberg, Germany, and escaped Nazi Germany with his family in 1939, just prior to the start of World War II. After attending public schools in New York City, he earned a master’s degree in industrial economics and doctorate in economics from Carnegie Institute of Technology. He did his undergraduate work at Queens College and the University of Chicago.
Weingartner arrived at Owen in 1977 after teaching at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1963-66) and University of Rochester (1966-77). At Owen, his teaching and research spanned finance, negotiation, entrepreneurship, quantitative methods and real estate. He taught in both the MBA and executive MBA programs.
“Marty Weingartner stood for the important academic principals of a great university: free speech and free inquiry, honest and verifiable research and the importance of real scholarship,” said Hans Stoll, emeritus professor of finance and former holder of the Anne Marie and Thomas B. Walker Jr. Chair of Finance at Owen.
In 1993, Owen awarded Weingartner its Teaching Excellence Award. He served as a consultant for several companies over the years, including Computer Consoles, Inc., Beatrice Companies, First American Bank, Marine Midland Banks and First National Bank of Chicago.
Weingartner was named professor emeritus in 1998.
Survivors include wife Joyce Trellis Weingartner of Nashville; son Steven of Florence, South Carolina; son Eric of New York City; son Kenneth of Nashville; and daughter Susan DeLaPaz of Bethesda, Maryland.