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NEWSLETTER

In Tribute to Lowell Hardin

 

Lowell Hardin influenced many people, professionally and personally, during his dual careers in academia and international agricultural development. Tributes to him and his work have come from many who knew him, and his wife, Mary, in both spheres, testifying to the impact both had on their lives. Here are some, from his colleagues at the Ford Foundation and his peers at Purdue University, where he taught before and after his work at Ford. 
 
Werner Kiene, who worked at Ford from 1972 to 1982 in Rural Poverty and Resources and the International Division, is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Marine Stewardship Council:
 
“Lowell has been our mentor, and much more. He was our friend. He was the beacon to whom we looked up when he was our boss and co-ordinator in the Ford Foundation and he continued to be that afterwards. He has been the link through which we collaborated during the time we worked with him and he continued to be the glue that kept many of us together over all the past decades.
 
“During his leadership of the Ford Foundation Agriculture and Rural Development group we were spread all over the globe, but Lowell succeeded in organizing us into a cohesive group, a ‘Virtual Department of Program Advisors and Experts’ as someone once put it. And this was before the days of the internet. He phoned us, he wrote letters, he visited us. He and Mary cared about our work but equally they cared about our families, about our health, about our children, who until today remember ‘Uncle Lowell and Aunt Mary’.
 
“Much has been written about the early days of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and what the Ford Foundation contributed to its success. However, only those of us who directly worked with Lowell in New York during the 1970s saw that it was he who, usually behind the scenes, was the tireless motor who pushed forward on the emerging system, straightening out remaining inconsistencies and inventing many of the early co-ordination processes that later became formalized. 
 
“Lowell was a consummate networker before this term became fashionable and before we had the internet. I was a young program officer working directly as Lowell’s assistant between 1972 and 1975 and I admired how he managed all this. He prodded development actors all over the world with hundreds of phone calls, attended numerous meetings and dictated countless memos and letters that were then expertly typed by his super-efficient secretary, Claudia Fletcher, before she was asked to work for Franklin Thomas, the Foundation’s president. 
 
“We all learned from his analytic and persuasive writing style that subsequently became the anchors for important decisions for a strong global agricultural research system.
 
“This activism and drive continued through all the following decades. He stayed engaged and kept us informed. He reminded us that we must continue to ‘help grow two blades of grass where there was only one before’.” 
 
Robert H. Edwards worked in the Africa and Middle East program and the International Division from 1965 to 1977, and is President Emeritus of Bowdoin College:
 
“What I remember most about Lowell, apart from his kindness and decency, is that, in the midst of all us Eastern-educated intellectuals brooding about theories of development, it was the Lowells and Frosty Hills that kept us honest.
 
“I remember Dave Bell’s Friday lunch meeting of divisional heads. Lowell was always there, courteous, considerate, but just slightly impatient, representing quietly what was then the reality of the Green Revolution. He and his agricultural guys were plenty smart, but one of their distinguishing features, when we visited our parishes with them in Asia and Africa, was that at 5:30 or 6 in the morning, when we were still sleeping off jet lag, he and his plant breeders and pathologists were up champing at the bit to be walking in the bunds with the local farmers. 
 
“He was the best sort of American.” 
 
Norman Collins, who worked for Ford for 30 years, from 1970 to 2000, in the Rural Poverty and Resources program and the Mexico City, New Delhi and Santiago offices:
 
“Lowell was for many years a pillar of the Foundation’s work in international agricultural and rural development. I remember the many strategy discussions that I and colleagues had with him—usually early in the morning before the hustling and bustling started at the Foundation.” 
 
Eduardo Venezian was a program adviser in agriculture and Foundation representative in Brazil in the 1970s:
 
“The main memory is Lowell’s instrumental leadership in forming a solid and productive agricultural economics team at the Ford Foundation, initially in Latin America and especially through the launching of the series of studies on the agricultural development of Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and other countries, followed by various international seminars on more specific agricultural topics. He thus became a sort of dean of the Foundation’s agricultural staff.
 
“I think that was really a major achievement of Lowell’s and one that made our work at the Foundation stimulating and rewarding. It is not something as visible or striking as the development of the CGIAR system, but it is similarly imaginative and demanding of leadership qualities.”
 
Paul Strasburg worked in the Latin America and Caribbean program and the Office of the President from 1969 to 1973:
 
“He was a good man who befriended me at the earliest stage of my so-called ‘career’, and I have always held him in a place of honor in my thoughts.”
 
Earl D. Kellogg worked in the Bangkok office from 1975 to 1977 and is a professor emeritus of the University of Illinois:
 
“I, like many others, will really miss Lowell. He was not only a wise person with great experience, he was a nice, gracious man. He was a gentleman, but sharp, insightful and saw the big picture. It is said of many people, but it is absolutely true for Lowell, that he made the world a better place.” 
 
Roberto Lenton, who worked in the Rural Poverty and Resources program and the New Delhi office from 1977 to 1986, is director of the Daugherty Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln:
 
“He will be sorely missed, and by so many. I am constantly amazed by how many people here in Lincoln knew and spoke warmly of him, either because they were part of the extended Hardin family or because they worked with him at Purdue.” 
 
William Carmichael worked in international development in various programs from 1963 to 1989:
 
“He was a great colleague throughout all those years when we both worked on the sixth floor in the Foundation’s New York office and collaborated on many issues.”
 
Thomas W. Hertel, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University and a former assistant program officer at Ford, spoke at a memorial service for Lowell Hardin on May 2 and said, in part:
 
“….The success of the International Agricultural Research Centers, and the ensuing Green Revolution in Asia and Latin America during this period, owes much to the quality of the individuals involved in the Centers.
 
“Lowell and Mary nurtured this network, both at home and on the road. From his office on East 43rd street in New York City, Lowell invented the world’s first ‘virtual network’ of individuals working around the globe on common issues–bound together through Lowell’s diligent correspondence, phone calls and periodic visits. Introducing social scientists into these laboratory-heavy research institutions was one of Lowell’s critical contributions to the CGIAR centers.
 
“His sage advice altered the professional trajectories of many, many individuals who went on to successful and rewarding careers. One of those was a 24-year-old would-be internationalist who was was struggling to find his way in the world. Lowell gave me a chance to work for him as assistant program officer, during which time all of his correspondence passed across my desk. Via this process of osmosis, I learned how to cultivate an international network of individuals seeking to achieve a broader vision. These were skills which I was able to bring to bear nearly two decades later when I reached the appropriate point in my own career.”
 
Gebisa Ejeta, a professor of agronomy at Purdue and winner in 2009 of the World Food Prize for his work with sorghum, also spoke at the memorial service:
 
“….Lowell became a member of the great thought leaders of the 20th century. These leaders envisioned that to fight hunger and poverty in poor nations, and to usher in peace and stability in the world, we needed to spread the science of agriculture that has already built up momentum in the western world and showing signs of potential success in Mexico and the Philippines….
 
“Many that served with him acknowledge his attention to detail, his deep understanding of the issues, his emphases on governance, the need for financial discipline, partnerships, science quality and the push for deliverables….This is his legacy, and this was his life.
 
“….Lowell was a lifetime learner and pursued knowledge with great interest. His deep interest in people was guided by his respect and acknowledgment of everyone’s worth, and that there is a lesson to be learned from every event and every experience….
 
“While I truly do not know what kept him sharp, lucid and youthful of mind, I feel that I know more perhaps about what was in his heart and what he tried to teach us. He taught us about faith and faithfulness, kindness and generosity of spirit, keeping a positive mind, hopefulness, objectivity, courage, decision-making however difficult, integrity and loyalty to spouse, family, friends and institutions.”

 

 

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