Memorial Remarks About Professor Romesh K. Diwan

(Delivered by Donald F. Vitaliano, April 7, 2004)

Romesh K. Diwan, Emeritus Professor of Economics, died on January 12, 2004 following a period of illness with cancer. Professor Diwan joined the Rensselaer faculty in 1968, coming from the United Nations. During his career he served as Chair of the Economics Department and Director of its Ph.D Program. Dr Diwan received his undergraduate education in India and his Ph.D from the University of Birmingham, England, in 1965. His thesis advisor was Professor Sir Alan Walters, an eminent British econometrician and theorist who was principal advisor to Lady Margaret Thatcher.

From the outset of his career at Rensselaer, Romesh was an extraordinarily hard working and productive scholar whose list of publications grew both in number and distinction. His 1973 paper “On the Growth Path of the Firm” appeared as the leading article in the American Economic Review, the preeminent journal in the field. This alone is generally enough to earn tenure at important universities. His academic output totaled 150 papers and five books, and he supervised 40 Ph.D. students. Professor Diwan’s research productivity far exceeded anything else expected or realized by other faculty in our School, and our longtime Dean, Tom Phelan, and Chairman Ed Holstein were fulsome in their praise and profound in their respect for him. Romesh was easily qualified for a position at a major research institution, and I personally know that Brown University was interested in him in the 1970’s. But Romesh was a man of simple needs and simple tastes, who long felt that R.P.I. was his home, and he readily sacrificed the prestige and honor which was his due in order to be near his beloved wife Joyce. I vividly recall the occasion of his marriage in 1971: he required only one suitcase to transport all his worldly possessions to his new home. We also knew Romesh as a Poet. On the occasion of a birthday, anniversary, promotion, retirement, whatever, Romesh could be relied upon to produce an original poem to warmly encapsulate everybody’s shared feelings.

Dr. Diwan became Chair of the Economics Department in 1982, following the untimely death of Professor Ed Holstein, a man much beloved by Romesh and myself. It was Romesh who suggested that we jointly fund a prize in Economics in honor of Ed Holstein. He and I donated an endowment that has grown considerably and which funds the annual Holstein Prize in Economics. Romesh was a great favorite of President George Lowe, who strongly supported him as Chair and encouraged his efforts by, for example, providing money for the Vollmer Fries Lecture Series in Economics. Dr. Diwan used this money to bring world class economists, including several Nobel Laureates, to Rensselaer to deliver public lectures.

Romesh and I disagreed on some issues, and we often had vigorous debates, yet my 35 years contact with him have been based on mutual love and respect.

I believe that we are all in some way shaped by our early life experiences. In Romesh’s case, his “world view” was profoundly influenced by growing up in Colonial India. Throughout his life, he viewed people and events through this particular prism. Although a naturalized citizen, Romesh was rooted firmly in his native India, where his creamated remains have been sent. Having established his technical credentials as an economist, Romesh in the 1970’s and 80’s began to meld his economic ideas with the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, and thus began a whole new stream of thinking and policies now known as Gandhian Economics. He wrote many papers, several books, and countless newspaper articles attempting to shape Indian (and western) economic policy along the lines favored by Gandhi: the centrality of small-scale institutions such as the family and village, the importance of cooperation and sharing, the value of preserving ancient cultural traditions and symbols. The present BJP government of India embodies many of the ideas promoted by Romesh Diwan, and he was an invited guest when Prime Minister Vajpayee was sworn into office in 1999. In many ways this was the culmination of a long career of ideas and persuasion, coupled with tireless social and professional networking across the globe. It will be a long time before Rensselaer experiences another Romesh Diwan. He is very much missed.