Biographies

John K. Langum

Name:
John K. Langum

Joined AGB:
Services began in early 60’s

Primary Dept/Div:
Investment Research

Primary Office:
Chicago

John K. Langum was born in Big Timber, Montana in 1913. He spent his childhood in Wyoming and Minnesota and graduated from high school at the age of 15. In 1933 he received his B.A. from Colorado College, where he was a Phi Beta Kappa. In 1936 he received his M.A. and in 1943 his Ph.D., both from the University of Minnesota. He was Vice President of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank from 1941-1951. He founded Business Economics, Inc, in 1951 and through that business served as an economic consultant until his death. He began to serve A.G. Becker in the early 1960s and for some ten years was the lead speaker at Becker dinners held in all the major cities of the nation. His dinner presentations on the nation’s economic status and outlook were anticipated and well attended by chief financial, executive, and investment officers from the leading local industrial, commercial, and investment organizations. The Langum dinners were phased out in the early 1970s succeeded by Moor/Hahn dinners and others from the Research Department. When serving Becker, John Langum resided in Elgin, moving from there in 1993 to Tucson, AZ where he died in 1998 at the age of 85.  John Langums ‘s papers are housed in the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, Illinois.

Obituary:
Chicago Tribune Digital, March 1, 1998. John Kenneth Langum, 84, owner and president of Business Economics Inc. of Chicago, died Thursday in Tucson Medical Center. Born in Big Timber, Mont., he moved to Park Ridge in 1941. He lived in Elgin from 1946 to 1993, when he moved to Tucson. Survivors include his wife, Sue; a son; a stepson; a sister; and four grandchildren.