As readers of this blog know, I paid some attention to the story of Andrei Shleifer, who was recently stripped of his endowed chair, the Whipple V.N. Jones Professor of Economics.

When Shleifer gave a quote to the press that said “I was a Professor of Economics last week, and I am a Professor of Economics this week,” I noted that this was something of a diss to Whipple V.N. Jones, whoever that was.

Turns out that Whipple VanNess Jones is—wait for it—my step-grandfather.

I discovered this yesterday, while having lunch with my father and stepmother, whose maiden name is Jones. At some point during lunch, she turned to me and said, “Richard, I have a Harvard question to ask you….”

She had heard something about a scandal involving the chair her father had endowed at Harvard.

And suddenly, it clicked: I’d only met her father, whom I knew as Whip Jones, once. But of course—he was Harvard class of ’32, and had made a fortune investing in Aspen real estate. He founded and owned the Aspen Highlands ski resort, which in 1992 he donated to Harvard, which later sold it for some huge amount of money. Whip Jones had also endowed the Whipple V.N. Jones chair in economics.

He passed away a few years ago, at the ripe old age of 92—a remarkable man, maker of an honest fortune who gave much of it away.

I asked my stepmother what her father would think of the current scandal.

“He would probably be amused,” she said. “He had a good sense of humor.”