David R. Dollar ’76

David R. Dollar ’76 died October 6 in Baltimore from complications following a bone marrow transplant with wife Paige and children Evan and Isabel by his side. At Dartmouth, he discovered a passion for Chinese history and culture that would shape the rest of his life. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Reynolds fellowship, which he used to study Mandarin in Taipei, Taiwan, and travelled around Southeast Asia. Dollar earned his Ph.D. in economics from New York University and was appointed assistant professor of economics at UCLA. He returned to Beijing as a visiting professor in 1986 through a UCLA-Ford Foundation Program, teaching at the graduate school of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, where he met Paige. He joined the World Bank in 1989 and during his 20-year career served as country economist for Vietnam, research manager for macroeconomics and growth, director of development policy, and finally country director for China and Mongolia. He and his family relocated to Beijing, where the family lived for nine years. In 2009, Dollar retired from the World Bank and served as the economic and financial emissary for the U.S. Department of Treasury. Upon returning to Washington, D.C., in 2013, Dollar joined the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution as a senior fellow. He was widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on the Chinese economy. His positivity, humility, and quick wit defined him and inspired others to do and care more.