ESOP Pioneer Norm Kurland Dies

Norm Kurland, one of the earliest advocates for ESOPs, has passed away. Born in 1930, Mr. Kurland received his law degree from the University of Chicago. His early career included being director of planning of the Citizens Crusade Against Poverty, a national coalition headed by United Auto Workers president Walter Reuther. Before that, Mr. Kurland, as a federal government lawyer, became deeply involved as a civil rights investigator.

With Louis Kelso, the creator of ESOPs, Kurland cofounded the Institute for the Study of Economic Systems and later became Washington counsel for Kelso's investment banking firm. He and Kelso were among a small group of people who met with Senator Russell Long, chair of the Senate Finance Committee. Long was persuaded and became a lifelong and powerful advocate for ESOPs and, starting in 1973, spearheaded multiple bills promoting ESOPs until he retired in 1987.

Kurland worked as an ESOP attorney, but his passion was the all-volunteer nonprofit he created, the Center for Economic and Social Justice (CESJ). The CESJ advocated for the "Just Third Way," a concept based on Kelso's economic theories. It advocated for the Capital Homestead Act, which would use Federal Reserve financing to provide everyone with a capital stake in the economy. In 1985, Kurland was appointed deputy chairman of President Ronald Reagan's Task Force on Project Economic Justice, which recommended reforms to implement ESOPs in U.S. development initiatives in Central America and the Caribbean. He was the chief architect of the first ESOP in a developing country, for the Alexandria Tire Company in Egypt, and consulted on a USAID project in Guatemala.

When the NCEO was being created in 1980, Norm provided free legal help with incorporation and was one of the first professionals to support us at a time when there was considerable skepticism in the ESOP community about the need for an organization like the NCEO. I will be forever grateful for all that he did to help us get through those early years. He was a passionate advocate who deeply believed that creating a more equitable economy was a moral imperative.

Norm is survived by his wife, Marie; his son, Daniel; and his daughter, Dawn, who now spearheads CESJ.