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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 the U.S. House of Representatives; from New 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 the New York Senate; from the 53rd district
	In office; January 1, 1963 – December 31, 1964
Preceded by	Austin Erwin
Succeeded by	Kenneth Willard
Personal details
Born	November 2, 1922; Warsaw, New York, U.S.
Died	November 30, 2003 (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 a U.S. Congressman from New York and former president of the World Bank Group.

Biography

Conable was born in Warsaw, New York on November 2, 1922. Conable was an Eagle Scout and received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. He graduated from Cornell University in 1942, where he was president of the Quill and Dagger society and a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. He then enlisted in the Marines and was sent to the Pacific front in World War II, where he learned to speak Japanese and fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima. After the war, he received his law degree from Cornell University Law School in 1948, where he lived at the Cornell Branch of the Telluride Association, having been admitted to the House as a law student, after an unsuccessful attempt as an undergraduate.^[1] He later re-enlisted and fought in the Korean War.

In 1952, Conable married Charlotte Williams, his wife until his death. He died from a staphylococcus infection in 2003, at his winter home in Sarasota, Florida.

Legislative career

In 1962, Conable was elected as a Republican to the New York State Senate. After only one term, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1964 from a Rochester-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,^[2]^: 205 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.

A long-time ally of Richard Nixon, Conable broke with him in disgust after the revelations of the Watergate scandal. When the White House released a tape of Nixon instructing his chief of staff H. R. Haldeman to obstruct the FBI investigation, Conable said it was a "smoking gun", a phrase which quickly entered the political folklore.

In 1980, Conable appeared in Milton Friedman's PBS documentary Free to Choose.^[3]

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.^[2]^: 204 His experience as a legislator proved crucial as he persuaded his former colleagues to almost double Congress's appropriations for the bank.

After the Tiananmen 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.^[2]^: 205 In Conable's view, those elements were motivated by the desire to improve their position in the 1992 election by being overly harsh on China.^[2]^: 205 Conable's view was that imposing excessive punishment was ill-advised at a time when Deng Xiaoping was struggling with domestic opponents over whether to continue economic reform.^[2]^: 205 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.^[2]^: 205 When asked by academic David M. Lampton what Conable was most proud of in his World Bank interaction with China, Conable answered, "We planted a billion trees in China."^[2]^: 205

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, ISBN 1-58046-128-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, ISBN 0-8213-1901-9.
Congress and The Income Tax, Barber B. Conable Jr. and Arthur L. Singleton, Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989, ISBN 0-8061-2195-5.
Controlling the Cost of Social Security: Held on June 25, 1981, and Sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Barber B. Conable Jr., John Charles, et al., Washington, D.C.: The Institute, 1981, ISBN 0-8447-2225-1.
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, ISBN 0-89068-132-5.
Papers at Cornell University.

References

^ Fleming, James S (2004). Window on Congress: A Congressional Biography of Barber B. Conable Jr. University of Rochester Press. pp. 34–36. ISBN 9781580461283.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Lampton, David M. (2024). Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-8725-8.
^ Free to Choose on YouTube (Conable's segment begins at approximately 37:20)

External links

New York State Senate
Preceded by Austin Erwin	Member of the New York Senate from the 53rd district 1963–1964	Succeeded by Kenneth Willard
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Harold Ostertag	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 37th congressional district 1965–1973	Succeeded by Thaddeus Dulski
Preceded by James Hanley	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 35th congressional district 1973–1983	Constituency abolished
Preceded by David Martin	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 30th congressional district 1983–1985	Succeeded by Fred Eckert
Preceded by Herman T. Schneebeli	Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee 1977–1985	Succeeded by John Duncan Sr.
Party political offices
Preceded by John Jacob Rhodes	Chair of the House Republican Policy Committee 7 December 1973– 3 January 1977	Succeeded by Del M. Clawson
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Tom Clausen	President of the World Bank Group 1986–1991	Succeeded by Lewis Preston