Raymond L. Richman

October 28, 2019, 9:14 am 0 Edit

RICHMAN: Former University of Pittsburgh professor of public and international affairs, well-known economist, soldier, and author Dr. Raymond L. Richman died at age 101 on Oct. 23 at his home in Pittsburgh. During World War II, he became an officer in the US Army Air Corps, and exited his active military service in 1945 as Executive Officer of the 600th Bomb Squadron with the rank of Major, serving in the European theatre, and joined the US Air Force Reserve and rose to the rank of Lt. Colonel. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1957 and afterwards worked as a consultant for the OEEC, the World Bank, the IMF, the Inter-American Development Bank, the US Agency for International Development and the Asian Development Bank. He also directed the preparation of the Real Estate Assessment Manual of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, published in 1971. He served briefly as head of the Departments of Economics at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and taught at the Universidad de Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina. When he retired from the University of Pittsburgh in 1982, he became professor emeritus of public and international affairs. He authored four books, dozens of journal articles and hundreds of commentaries about economic development, tax policy and trade policy. In recent years most were co-authored with his son (Howard) and his grandson (Jesse), a unique three generational collaboration. Beginning with a commentary in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on Sept. 14, 2003, he became one of the first advocates of a policy of balanced trade, an alternative to the free trade vs. fair trade debate. His essential argument was that trade, free or not, benefits both countries if it is balanced. A member of Rodef Shalom Congregation, Raymond is survived by his wife of 47 years, Wilma T. C. Richman, his children Janice Richman, Howard Richman (and wife Susan Richman), Robin Richman and Lucila Silva, and Maria Silva (wife of Newton Silva), 11 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his first wife Hilda Richman, his parents Reuben Richman and Ida Jakobson Richman, his brother Lester Richman, his sister Dorothy Stern, and his son Newton Silva.