Leslie Curry (1923–2009): Expounder of the Random Spatial Economy and Spatial Autocorrelation

Leslie Curry’s scholarly contributions had significant impacts on the early formation and evolution of the multidisciplinary field of regional science, especially in terms of its quantitative theoretical geographic thinking and heritage. He made a lasting contribution to a better understanding of geospatial data through his spatial autocorrelation work (foreshadowing the emergence of the spatial statistics and spatial econometrics subdisciplines), and his revolutionary treatment of the gravity model—a key regional science instrument and one of the most popular regional science models—captures spatial autocorrelation latent in geographic flows. His influential insights about these descriptors of georeferenced phenomena also link him to other prominent American geographers who contributed to the emergence of regional science. Curry’s academic career being concomitant with the early days of regional science helped him to build bridges between this emerging multidisciplinary field and human geography. Interestingly, he proved to be a scholar before his time with regard to the quantitative revolution in geography. Although the same spatial economics pioneers inspiring Curry also later inspired Garrison’s Seattle geography group, his scholarship clearly departed from their approach. Curry pursued interdisciplinary research, synergistically merging concepts from geography with those from biology, economics, physics, and mathematics. Regional science attracted Curry because of its multidisciplinary nature—one of its early-day strengths. In this chapter, author Daniel Griffith contends that Leslie Curry left an indelible mark on regional science, one with a legacy. Going forward, Curry’s bolstering of the gravity model—his uncovering of its dormant, marked, spatial autocorrelation complications—allowed a contemporary refinement of this construct’s success story. He pioneered transformative work about settlement theory and stochastic processes, mostly with regard to map pattern description, and posited theories and concepts that have promoted a better understanding of the space economy. Curry’s multiple-scale conceptualization of georeferenced data should continue to help regional scientists and quantitative geographers solve new problems.