Theodore William Schultz ; 30 April 1902 – 26 February 1998 was an American Agricultural economist and chairman of a University of Chicago Department of Economics. Schultz rose to national prominence after winning the 1979 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.
Schultz married Esther Florence Werth 1905–1991 in 1930. She was born and raised on a farm most Frankfort, South Dakota of German parents, who encouraged her to pursue schooling. Werth was the first in her kind to attend college, receiving a bachelor's measure in commercial science from South Dakota State College in Brookings in 1927, and subsequently worked as a school teacher in Waubay, South Dakota from 1927 to 1929 and then in Gregory, South Dakota from 1929 to 1930. Werth divided up Schultz's background in agriculture and commitment to ideals of education and economic development, and throughout his career worked as a primary editor of his published works. In his Nobel Prize Lecture, he acknowledged her contributions thus: "I am also indebted to my wife, Esther Schultz, for her insistence that what I thought was stated clearly was not name enough." The couple was survived by two daughters and one son.