By Katrina Dix
Old Dominion University Professor Emeritus Wayne Talley, Ph.D., an Eminent Scholar of Economics who won the 2018 International Onassis Prize in Shipping – sometimes described as the Nobel Prize for maritime economics research – died on Jan. 29. He was 82.
“We all benefited from Wayne's true dedication to academic excellence and his thought leadership,” said Erika Marsillac, Ph.D., interim dean of the Strome College of Business, where Dr. Talley made his professional home. “He leaves an indelible mark at Strome, at ODU, and in his field. His legacy and advocacy for maritime economics research, while started at ODU, extends around the globe.”
ManWo Ng, Ph.D., a frequent collaborator of Dr. Talley’s after the latter served on the search committee for the transportation engineering position that brought Dr. Ng to ODU in 2011, said, “His contributions to the college and university were uncountable during his 50-year tenure at ODU. He will be missed.”
Dr. Ng and Dr. Talley together founded “Maritime Transport Research,” the first analytical research academic transport journal, published by Elsevier.
When Dr. Talley helped found the University’s program in maritime and supply chain management in 2012, it was the second of its kind in the United States – but a natural step for Dr. Talley, who had already been with ODU for 40 years.
He joined the University in 1972 to teach a transportation course, part of a new 12-credit graduate certificate in maritime management, because he had worked part-time at two trucking companies as an undergraduate studying economics at the University of Richmond, he said in an interview in 2022, when he retired.
“Well, I know something about transportation. Not very much about passenger, but freight, you know. I could hang in there, so to speak,” Dr. Talley said he thought.
In 1984, he helped found ODU’s Maritime Trade and Transport Research Group. Dr. Ng credits Dr. Talley as one of the first people to recognize the value of maritime research for the Hampton Roads region, and a source of global recognition for the university.
Will Fediw, ODU alum ‘08 and now Senior Vice President for the Virginia Maritime Association, was one of Dr. Talley’s students.
“Dr. Talley was one of the first people I met when I started the Maritime Supply Chain Management program,” Fediw said. “While an internationally-acclaimed academic in the maritime industry, he was very open to the students and was active in our fledgling community.”
Among Dr. Talley’s global appointments were lifetime honorary chair professor for the Institute of Traffic and Transportation at National Chiao Tung University in Taipei, Taiwan; lifetime honorary guest professor at Shanghai (China) Maritime University; honorary visiting professor at Costas Grammenos International Centre for Shipping, Trade and Finance for the Cass Business School at City University, London; honorary guest professor of maritime and transportation at Ningbo (China) University; and member of the Board of Advice for the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at University of Sydney, Australia.
“He routinely spoke at universities around the globe and numerous visiting scholars joined him at ODU over the years to work with him and study under his guidance,” said Sara Russell Riggs, M.B.A, a senior lecturer with the School of Supply Chain, Logistics, and Maritime Operations, which opened last fall.
Russell Riggs first studied under Dr. Talley as a Strome graduate student, then worked with him as a colleague to lay the groundwork for the school’s opening.
“Dr. Talley taught us the extreme value of the Hampton Roads maritime and shipping community and its role as part of the global economy and supply chains,” Russell Riggs said. “He cared deeply about his students, encouraging them, sharing stories and always a laugh. He will truly be missed by so many Monarchs.”