Passing of Randy Barker
From: Tim Gorman <tmg56@cornell.edu>
Sent: Monday, July 25, 2022 10:29 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Vsg] Randy Barker
Dear list,
I wanted to pass along the sad news that Dr. Randy Barker has passed away at the age of 92. Randy was a professor of agricultural economics at Cornell and had extensive experience in Southeast Asia. I know he often visited Vietnam and had many friends and colleagues there (especially at what was then the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program, precursor to Fulbright University).
If you're interested, below are links to remembrances from the International Water Management Institute and the International Rice Research Institute:
https://www.iwmi.cgiar.org/2022/07/remembering-dr-randy-barker/
Best regards,
Tim Gorman
Assistant Professor
Montclair State University
From: Shawn McHale <mchale@gwu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2022 1:45 PM
To: Tim Gorman <tmg56@cornell.edu>
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Randy Barker
Tim,
Thanks for posting this.
The Cornell agricultural economist Randy Barker mostly focused on the Philippines, and he was among the earliest Western agriculture specialists, I believe, to visit China after the Cultural Revolution. But as Tim Gorman suggests, he also was involved in Vietnam. His first involvement was indirect -- he was a good friend and colleague of Dr. Võ Tòng Xuân, who received two degrees from the University of the Philippines--Los Banos and was a fellow at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), where Randy Barker taught for a while. Võ Tòng Xuân was well-known in the delta after 1975 for his rice expertise, which had a huge impact on the Mekong delta.
That connection, I believe, may have been one reason, I surmise, that Randy Barker wanted to collaborate with Vietnamese agricultural economists in the 1990s. (That, and the simple fact that IRRI was path-breaking on rice, and IRRI rice varieties were used in the Mekong delta, and the fact that in the 1990s Vietnam badly needed expertise on agriculture and economics to boost agricultural yields.) In the 1990s, Randy Barker taught for at least five years a course in agricultural development in Vietnam as part of the Fulbright Economics Teaching Program, important in training economists in Vietnam at the time. He also got out in the field -- in this case, the Mekong delta, meeting up with his old friend Võ Tòng Xuân.
In 1990, he tried to get former Prime Minister Nguyễn Cơ Thạch to come to Cornell as a fellow. (I was the courier of that letter of invitation.) That never panned out, unfortunately.
He will be missed.
Shawn McHale
George Washington University
From: Raymond Mallon <raymallon@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2022 7:31 PM
To: mchale@gwu.edu
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Randy Barker
Shawn:
Thanks, interesting.
Although I never met Randy Baker, I also benefited from discussions with Prof Võ Tòng Xuân at IRRI prior to undertaking sector studies in Viet Nam for ADB in the later 1980s. Very knowledgeable and helpful man.
I was also fortunate to meet with the impressive Mr Nguyễn Cơ Thạch on multiple occasions when working with the Office of the Council of Ministers as part of a UNDP/WB/EDI economic training program in the early to mid1990s. He was Foreign Minister and a deputy Chair of the Council of Ministers (equivalent to deputy Prime Minister), but he was never Prime Minister (to the best of my knowledge)? His son is now First Deputy Prime Minister and member of the Politburo.
Cheers
Ray
Raymond Mallon
Economist
Hà Nội, Việt Nam
raymallon@gmail.com
+84 (0) 903404949
From: David Marr <david.marr@anu.edu.au>
Sent: Monday, August 1, 2022 4:55 PM
To: Raymond Mallon <raymallon@gmail.com>; mchale@gwu.edu
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Randy Barker
I had a number of rewarding conversations with Prof.Xuan in the 1980s. I was wondering if he published a memoir subsequently?
David Marr
ANU