LEWISTON — Nathaniel Wollman passed away peacefully at Lewiston’s d’Youville Pavilion on June 10. He moved to Lewiston in 2008 to live with his younger son and daughter-in-law, after having spent the previous 60 years in New Mexico. Despite the challenging change of climate, he came to appreciate Lewiston as a very fine place to live.

Nathaniel was born May 15, 1915, in Philadelphia, where he grew up. On graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania. After one year at Penn, a close friend and a golf course lured him to Pennsylvania State University, from which he received the B.A. in economics. He received a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 1940. In 1939, he married Lenora Levin, also of Philadelphia. That year he also became a member of the faculty of Colorado College.

During World War II, Nathaniel served first as a senior business economist in the Office of Price Administration and then in 1943 enlisted in the Navy. While on active duty, Nathaniel developed a deep attachment to and admiration for the Navy. At the end of the war, rather than leaving the Navy altogether, he stayed on as an officer in the Naval Reserve, from which he retired in 1968 at the rank of lieutenant commander.

In 1948, the Wollmans, now with two young sons, moved to Albuquerque, where Nathaniel joined the faculty of the Department of Economics of the University of New Mexico. He served as chair of the department from 1960 to 1969. In 1969, he was appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, a position he held until his retirement from the University in 1980.

Throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Nathaniel conducted research in the economics of natural resources and the emerging field of environmental economics. His specialty was water resources. In 1960, he authored the report Water Supply and Demand, a section of a comprehensive analysis of water resources activities prepared under the direction of the Senate Select Committee on National Water Resources.

During the 1970s, he was a member of both the Environmental Studies Board and the Board on Mineral and Energy Resources of the National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1973, he directed the preparation of the report Man, Materials, and Environment. This report, requested by and prepared for the National Commission on Materials Policy, assessed the mutual influences of national materials policy and national environmental policy. Nathaniel’s publications during these years also include three books: one on New Mexico water resources, one on U.S. national water resources and one on the water resources of Chile.

Nathaniel loved golf and fly fishing. Both became family activities. He pursued the latter until better judgment forced him to acknowledge the unacceptable risk to an elderly gentleman alone on some remote stream in the mountains of northern New Mexico. Into his 90s, he was a fixture on his favorite Albuquerque golf course.

Nathaniel is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Stephen and Patricia Wollman of Staten Island, N.Y., and their son, Joseph Wollman of Ann Arbor, Mich.; his son and daughter-in-law, Eric Wollman and Patricia Buls of Lewiston and their daughters, Rose Wollman of Bloomington, Ind., and Lila Wollman of St. Petersburg, Fla.; and his brother, Milton Wollman of Philadelphia.

Nathaniel’s sister, Grace Wollman Kunstler died in 1987. All knew Nathaniel as a loving and caring person, dedicated to his family, to his profession and to his responsibilities as a citizen. His family is deeply thankful to the staff of St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, d’Youville Pavilion and Androscoggin Home Care and Hospice for their kind and careful attention to him during his final months.

Nathaniel will be buried beside his wife, Lenora, in the National Cemetery in Santa Fe.