KRUTILLA, John Vasil 1922-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born February 13, 1922, in Tacoma, WA; died of lung cancer June 27, 2003, in McLean, VA. Economist and author. Krutilla was a noted environmental economist who demonstrated that environmental conservation can make good business sense. After serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, he took advantage of the G.I. Bill to complete a degree in economics at Reed College in 1949 and earn a Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1952. He then joined the staff of the Tennessee Valley Authority as an economist before helping to found Resources for the Future, a conservation organization. Beginning as a research associate there in 1955 and becoming director of the organization's wild lands, wildlife, and scenic resources program in 1968 and senior fellow in 1975, Krutilla demonstrated that undeveloped, natural lands have economic value that often exceeds the potential financial gain of developing them. In one case, for example, he prevented a dam from being constructed on the Snake River running along the border between Oregon and Idaho by proving that the project did not make economic sense compared to the intrinsic value of the land. Krutilla set down his convincing arguments in his 1967 article "Conservation Reconsidered," which was published in the American Economic Review. This groundbreaking paper marked the beginning of many more publications in the area of environmental economics. Krutilla also published a number of books in the field, including Natural Environments: Studies in Theoretical and Applied Analysis (1972), The Structure and Properties of a Wilderness Travel Simulator (1976), and Economics and Public Forestland Management (1988). For his conservation work, he was honored with an American Motors Conservation Award in 1977, a D.H.L. from Reed College in 1978, and, along with Allen V. Kneese, the first Volvo Environment Prize in 1990.

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New York Times, July 20, 2003, p. A25.

Washington Post, July 12, 2003, p. B6.