Raymond George Bressler, Jr., Agricultural Economics: Berkeley

	1911-1968
	Professor

Raymond G. Bressler, Jr. came to the Berkeley campus of the University of California on July 1, 1948 as Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics and with related titles in the Agricultural Experiment Station and on the Giannini Foundation. He had then already won national recognition as a scholar of extraordinary talent in both theoretical and empirical research, for his deep interest in students, for inspiring leadership in his profession, and for his dedication in service to the values of the University. These qualities were a natural outcome of early and long association with university life.

Bressler was born in New Braunfels, Texas on September 16, 1911. Successive appointments for his father on the faculty of Texas A & M University, as Dean of the College of Agriculture at Pennsylvania State University, and as President of Rhode Island State University made the university campus a natural habitat and more specifically for Bressler led to two B.S. degrees: the first in agricultural engineering at Pennsylvania and the second in mechanical engineering at Rhode Island. Bressler later received the M.S. degree in agricultural economics at the University of Connecticut and the Ph.D. degree in economics at Harvard University. Meanwhile he was married to Dorothy Tompkins of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who had been a graduate student in zoology at Rhode Island during the period of Bressler's residence there. Prior to coming to Berkeley, Bressler held appointments as

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Executive Secretary of the New England Research Council and as a Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Connecticut. He is survived by his wife, three children, his mother, and three sisters.

Bressler's engineering training was basic to his strength in production economics. He understood both the physical and economic aspects of production processes, and this lead to early applications of engineering principles and data in the synthesis of production and cost relationships in the processing and distribution of agricultural commodities. These studies began at the University of Connecticut. They were continued at Berkeley, where an important consequence was a reformulation of the theory of production and cost relationships in the economic theory of the firm that received wide recognition in the field of agricultural economics. Interest in this basic aspect of economic theory persisted throughout Bressler's career, and a major unfinished work is the exploration of new techniques for estimation of production and cost functions. Other significant research included studies of efficiency in the performance of agricultural markets. These studies were broadly conceived and dealt with problems of pricing, the economics of plant location, interregional and international trade, and regional economic development. While this work was firmly grounded in economic theory, it also benefited from Bressler's wide knowledge of the legal and institutional aspects of the marketing system. He was sensitive to their effects on the economic performance of the system and their implications with respect to public policy. His research was widely acclaimed; his doctoral thesis, a study of city milk distribution, was awarded the Wells prize at Harvard University.

While known throughout the country for excellence in research, Bressler was even more highly regarded as a teacher. His teaching reflected, was enlivened by, and reinforced his research. He was notably organized, incisive, and articulate in the presentation of complex ideas. To students he was

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friendly, evocative and responsive, and from them he exacted a high standard of performance. He gave to students generously of his time and ideas. For many students his insights, enthusiasm and confidence inspired achievement well beyond self-realized capabilities. The quality of his work, his professional integrity, and his personal warmth were tangibly rewarded by his election as President of the Western Farm Economics Association and as President and Fellow of the American Farm Economic Association.

To a degree rarely found, Bressler's superb record in teaching and research is matched by outstanding contributions in university and public service. Through his professional activities he was recognized nationally as an authority in agricultural marketing, and his services were widely sought as an adviser and consultant to private industry groups, to government agencies, and to legislative bodies. Within the University he served on the Senate Committees on Educational Policy and Budget at Berkeley and was Chairman of the Budget Committee. He was a member of the Emergency Executive Committee and an original advocate of the trial establishment of a Divisional Committee on Budget Policy, now institutionalized as the Academic Planning Committee. His administrative assignments at Berkeley included service as Chairman of the Department of Agricultural Economics, Director of the Giannini Foundation, Vice Chancellor, Director of the Office of Institutional Research, and Chairman of the Steering Committee on Academic Planning. These and numerous other services to the Berkeley campus and the University as a whole brought to Bressler a wide acquaintance. Through them he gave to the University the benefits of a brilliant, informed, and inquisitive intellect, enlightened and prescient judgment, a ready wit, enthusiasm, and dedication to the public interest and to the welfare of the University, its students and its staff.

Excellence in research and teaching are qualities we all seek and which Bressler attained in full measure. He performed

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with high distinction in the administration of the University and in community and public service. These are accomplishments of lasting benefit, but he will be most remembered as a man of warm and lively spirit, a man of wisdom and humor, of insight, of optimism and hope, and who was rewarded with honor, respect, and affection by the institutions and people he served.