Barber Conable

Barber Conable
President of the World Bank Group
In office July 1, 1986 – August 31, 1991
Preceded by	Tom Clausen
Succeeded by	Lewis Preston
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew York
In office January 3, 1965 – January 3, 1985
Preceded by	Harold Ostertag
Succeeded by	Fred Eckert
Constituency	37th district(1965–1973) 35th district(1973–1983) 30th district(1983–1985)
Member of theNew York Senate from the53rddistrict
In office January 1, 1963 – December 31, 1964
Preceded by	Austin Erwin
Succeeded by	Kenneth Willard
Personal details
Born	(1922-11-02)November 2, 1922 Warsaw,New York,U.S.
Died	November 30, 2003(2003-11-30)(aged 81) Sarasota,Florida,U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Charlotte Williams
Education	Cornell University(BA,LLB)

Barber Benjamin Conable Jr.(November 2, 1922 – November 30, 2003) was aU.S. CongressmanfromNew Yorkand formerPresident of the World Bank Group.

Biography

Conable was born inWarsaw, New Yorkon November 2, 1922. Conable was anEagle Scoutand received theDistinguished Eagle Scout Awardfrom theBoy Scouts of America.He graduated fromCornell Universityin 1942, where he was president of theQuill and Daggersociety and a member of thePhi Delta Thetafraternity. He then enlisted in theMarinesand was sent to the Pacific front inWorld War II,where he learned to speakJapaneseand fought in theBattle of Iwo Jima.After the war, he received his law degree fromCornell University Law Schoolin 1948, where he lived at theCornell Branch of the Telluride Association,having been admitted to the House as a law student, after an unsuccessful attempt as an undergraduate.He later re-enlisted and fought in theKorean War.

In 1952, Conable married Charlotte Williams, his wife until his death. He died from astaphylococcus infectionin 2003, at his winter home inSarasota, Florida.

Legislative career

In 1962, Conable was elected as a Republican to theNew York State Senate.After only one term, he was elected to theU.S. House of Representativesin 1964 from aRochester-based district. He was reelected nine more times. He was known on both sides of the aisle for his honesty and integrity, at one point being voted by his colleagues the "most respected" member of Congress; he refused to accept personal contributions larger than $50. As a longtime ranking minority member of the House Ways and Means Committee,one of his signal legislative achievements was a provision in the U.S. tax code that made so-called 401(k) and 403(b) defined-contribution retirement plans possible, and contributions to those plans by both employers and employees tax-deferred, under federal tax law.

Barber Conable on April 5, 1973

A long-time ally ofRichard Nixon,Conable broke with him in disgust after the revelations of theWatergate scandal.When the White House released a tape of Nixon instructing his Chief of StaffH. R. Haldemanto obstruct theFBIinvestigation, Conable said it was a "smoking gun", a phrase which quickly entered the political folklore.

In 1980, Conable appeared inMilton Friedman'sPBSdocumentaryFree to Choose.

Conable retired from the House in 1984.

President of the World Bank

From 1986 until August 31, 1991, Conable was president of the World Bank.His experience as a legislator proved crucial as he persuaded his former colleagues to almost double Congress's appropriations for the bank.

After theTiananmen Square protests and massacre,Conable opposed elements of the George H.W. Bush administration and Congress which sought to take a more punitive stance toward China.In Conable's view, those elements were motivated by the desire to improve their position in the 1992 by being overly harsh on China.Conable's view was that imposing excessive punishment was ill-advised at a time whenDeng Xiaopingwas struggling with domestic opponents over whether to continueeconomic reform.Conable successfully encouraged the World Bank Board of Governors to take an expansive view of humanitarian loans to China, including with regard to environmental loans because of the intrinsic merit of those investments.When asked by academicDavid M. Lamptonwhat Conable was most proud of in his World Bank interaction with China, Conable answered, "We planted a billion trees in China."

Literature by and about Conable

• Window on Congress: A Congressional Biography of Barber B. Conable Jr.,James S. Fleming, Rochester, New York: University of Rochester Press, 2004,ISBN1-58046-128-X.
• The Conable Years at the World Bank: Major Policy Addresses of Barber B. Conable, 1986–91,Barber B. Conable Jr., Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 1991,ISBN0-8213-1901-9.
• Congress and The Income Tax,Barber B. Conable Jr. and Arthur L. Singleton, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989,ISBN0-8061-2195-5.
• Controlling the Cost of Social Security: Held on June 25, 1981, and Sponsored by theAmerican Enterprise Institutefor Public Policy Research,Barber B. Conable Jr., John Charles, et al., Washington, D.C.: The Institute, 1981,ISBN0-8447-2225-1.
• Foreign Assistance in a Time of Constraints,Barber B. Conable Jr., Richard S. Belous, S. Dahlia Stern, and Nita Christine Kent, eds., Washington, D.C.: National Planning Association, 1995,ISBN0-89068-132-5.
• Papersat Cornell University.

External links

• Conable's career at the World Bank
• "Barber Conable".Find a Grave.Retrieved2008-01-13.
• Conable's obituary in theNew York Times
• Conable's obituary in theGuardian
• Conable in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• AppearancesonC-SPAN