Lucky Me: Engaging a World of Opportunities and Challenges

David Cole’s first engagement with Asia occurred at age 18 when he worked in China for one year as part of a tractor-based agricultural relief project under the United Nations. He next was sent to Korea with the US Army, 1951-52, where he was assigned to the United Nations Civil Assistance Command, Korea, and traveled widely throughout the country analyzing cottage industry. He returned to Korea, 1964-66, as Senior Economist with the US Aid Mission, and worked closely with Korean economic officials on formulation of economic policy and preparation of the Second Five Year Plan. In the 1970s he assisted with establishment of the Korean Development Institute. He was an advisor to the Indonesian Government on economic and financial policies from 1966 onward and was a consultant to many other Asian and African countries.

He received an AB degree in Far Eastern Studies from Cornell University, 1950, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Michigan in 1959. He taught at Vanderbilt University, 1958-62, and was affiliated with the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) and the Economics Department at Harvard from 1966 to 1994. His signature courses at Harvard were on Modernization of Korea and Financial Policy for Developing Countries. His publications include three books on Korean development, one on Indonesia’s financial system, and one on a rural development project in Sudan. Since his retirement from Harvard in 1994, he has been engaged in various environmental and historical preservation activities in Southeastern Massachusetts.