Professor Ali Hekmat retires after 18 years
USU Eastern economics associate professor, Ali Hekmat Ph.D., retired in December 2012 after teaching 18 years on the Price campus.
With a smile on his face, grades submitted and a retirement party, Hekmat started packing his bags to begin traveling in January.
Hekmat was born and raised in Iran, and moved to America when he was 30. He attended college in Claremont, Calif., where he received two masters’ degrees: one in economics and a master’s in business administration. Eventually, he moved to Milwaukee, Wisc., where he received his doctorate in economics at the University of Wisconsin.
This archived article was written by: Rose Hafford
USU Eastern economics associate professor, Ali Hekmat Ph.D., retired in December 2012 after teaching 18 years on the Price campus.
With a smile on his face, grades submitted and a retirement party, Hekmat started packing his bags to begin traveling in January.
Hekmat was born and raised in Iran, and moved to America when he was 30. He attended college in Claremont, Calif., where he received two masters’ degrees: one in economics and a master’s in business administration. Eventually, he moved to Milwaukee, Wisc., where he received his doctorate in economics at the University of Wisconsin.
Besides USU Eastern, he taught at Marquette University, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, Western Washington University in Bellingham and the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks. He has accumulated almost 29 years of teaching in his career.
It was in Wisconsin that he and his wife Cathrin had their first son, Neema. They had their second son, Daniel in North Dakota.
In September 1994, he moved to Price, Utah, and started teaching economics at the College of Eastern Utah where he has spent the past 18 years.
After spending a career of teaching, there’s no doubt he enlightened and inspired countless students. Any student who has ever had him as a professor, should know how much he loved his job as an educator.
Among all the accomplishments to be proud of, he is most proud that he raised their two sons in America.
Hekmat wasted little of his retirement time before he embarked on his first vacation. The first week of spring semester he left to spend three months in Iran visiting his family. Iran is just the first stop of many for him; now that he is retired, he says he plans on traveling the world.
He has made a significant difference in the hearts and lives of many students past and present and will never be forgotten, but he promises he won’t forget the students either.
