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Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May/June 2005, page 41 In Memoriam Thomas Reynolds Stauffer, Ph.D. (1935-2005)By Donald Alford Weadon, Jr.
I WISH TO reflect upon the death of a great and true friend, and an eminent and energetic participant in the debates over Middle East policy: Tom Stauffer. Tom passed away March 11 with his family at his side after a heroic battle with cancer. I had the honor to be within the embrace of Tom’s friendship for nearly two decades, and he was my intellectual “Dutch Uncle,” serving as a moderating influence on my more emphatic outbursts, orally and in print. A critical thinker of the first water, Tom’s work spanned a remarkable number of topics from economics to nuclear physics. Unstinting in his intellectual and emotional generosity, Tom was a stalwart colleague to many who read the Washington Report, as he was a frequent contributor of trenchant articles. Tom’s remarkable life and work are only touched upon in his published obituary in the March 18, 2005 Washington Post. He served twice in the Executive Office of the president with the Cabinet Task Force on Oil Import Control and with the Price Commission during the Nixon administration. As The Washington Post noted, he also was a consultant to the anti-trust unit of the Federal Trade Commission. Tom appeared before numerous tribunals and international bodies in Washington, DC and abroad, testifying as an expert in tax, nationalization and regulatory matters, including the proceedings at The Hague regarding Iran’s nationalization of foreign oil assets. In addition to his extensive work in energy, energy economics and resource valuation, his intellectual grasp spanned from nuclear physics to Middle Eastern carpets and textiles. He also was a serious stamp collector. If there was a “Renaissance Man,” Tom truly fit the description. He was also a stand-up thinker and fearless gadfly on many issues of U.S. Middle East policy which by dint of their explosive political nature have been kept, with general success, ob scena (“off the stage,” in Latin) in the public forum. He was particularly pointed in his thoughtful critiques of Israeli policy, U.S. policy toward Israel, and a range of ancillary issues including nuclear policy in Israel and the region. He was especially insightful on Iranian issues, and spent a good deal of time there “on the ground” with his wife, Ilse. In fact, in the 1960s, Tom and Ilse traveled with the Qashqai nomads of Iran and made several films about their lifestyle and rug making which they have donated to the Smithsonian Institution. As an economist, he was peerless. He taught economics and Middle East studies at Harvard (1971-1982), the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna (1982-85) and Georgetown University (1985-1989). He also lectured regularly at the Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute and at the Army and Navy war colleges. His work at Harvard was respected, although some of his scholarly writings were often the subject of heated denunciation from certain quarters (his economic summary of the gross dollar amount of U.S. aid to Israel, published in the Washington Report, is still raising hackles in some circles). He played a key role at The Hague as Iran and the U.S. sought to resolve their claims. Last year, OPEC presented him its most prestigious award, and at death’s doorstep, he and his wife ‘hopped’ over to Vienna to accept it. While he received many awards and accolades, however, he always made one feel that the ultimate plaudit was your friendship. But as a person, he was an American original. He demonstrated unflagging courage in facing down cancer, hiking in the Alps only last year with his beloved Ilse. Until the end, he was bubbling with intellectual excitement, publishing, commenting and setting a number of people straight, notably those who would place the interests of another sovereignty above those of his beloved country, America. For that he was criticized by a particular clacque. For that, I say, we should honor him and keep his memory in our hearts. Whenever Tom and I parted, in person or by phone, he would always cheerfully say “fight fiercely,” a delightful snippet from Tom Lehrer’s Harvard “fight song.” It embodied his wit, and in the end, his philosophy of life. In fact, they were his last words to me when I left from a visit shortly before his death. He is survived by his wife of 42 years, Ilse Martha Stauffer; three children, Barbara Willard Stauffer, Anne Reynolds Stauffer, and Michael George Stauffer; a brother; and one grandson. As Donne wrote, “Any man’s death diminishes me.” With Tom Stauffer’s passing I have lost a great friend and mentor, and I feel particularly diminished. And we have all lost a champion for the interests of all Americans in the global forum. Donald Weadon is a Washington-based international lawyer who has spent years in the Middle East and is a friend of the Washington Report.
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