Berbician, Dr. Rawle Farley, economist and educator who put four sons through Harvard, died yesterday at 88
According to information from his son Christopher, he passed away at Rochester General Hospital in Rochester, N.Y.
Dr. Farley had been a professor of economics at the State University of New York, College at Brockport since 1966. He was the founder and first chairperson of the Department of Economics at SUNY Brockport, and was named Professor Emeritus in 1995.
Dr. Farley is the author of a number of works that helped shape the study of the economics of the developing world, including “Planning for Development in Libya: The Exceptional Economy in the Developing World” (Praeger, 1971) and “The Economics of Latin America: Development Problems in Perspective” (Harper & Row, 1972). Foreign Affairs called the latter book “intense and comprehensive,” and Dr. Farley’s work has been featured in Time magazine, among other publications. In the 2007 cultural history “Breaking Down the Walls” by Howard Fergus, Lennox Bernard and Judith Soares, the authors described Dr. Farley as “a visionary leader with the courage to challenge the existing system and its standards.”
Born Rawle Egbert Griffith Farley in Courtland Village, Berbice, Guyana, the young Farley taught elementary school and held posts with the Guyanese government before leaving the country to pursue his education. To pay for his schooling and fund his trip abroad, he sold the trophies he had won as a champion hurdler.
Dr. Farley earned a Teacher’s Diploma, B.A.,
With his wife Dr. Ena Farley, a noted scholar of African-American history who is also a Professor Emeritus at SUNY Brockport, Dr. Farley had four sons: Jonathan graduated from Harvard summa cum laude and earned a doctorate in mathematics from Oxford University; Anthony (a University of Virginia graduate) and Felipe (a Harvard graduate) both earned J.D.’s from Harvard Law School and are attorneys-at-law; and Christopher, who also attended Harvard College, is a senior editor at The Wall Street Journal and the author of a number of non-fiction books and novels. Jeremy, Dr. Farley’s son by a previous marriage, is deceased.