View source for Barber Conable

{{Short description|American politician (1922–2003)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Barber Conable
| image               = Barber Conable.jpg
| office              = [[President of the World Bank Group]]
| term_start          = July 1, 1986
| term_end            = August 31, 1991
| predecessor         = [[Alden W. Clausen|Tom Clausen]]
| successor           = [[Lewis Thompson Preston|Lewis Preston]]
| office1             = 
| state1              = [[New York (state)|New York]]
| constituency1       = {{ushr|NY|37|37th district}} (1965–1973)<br>{{ushr|NY|35|35th district}} (1973–1983)<br>{{ushr|NY|30|30th district}} (1983–1985)
| term_start1         = January 3, 1965
| term_end1           = January 3, 1985
| predecessor1        = [[Harold C. Ostertag|Harold Ostertag]]
| successor1          = [[Fred J. Eckert|Fred Eckert]]
| state_senate4       = New York
| district4           = [[New York's 53rd State Senate district|53rd]]
| term_start4         = January 1, 1963
| term_end4           = December 31, 1964
| predecessor4        = [[Austin W. Erwin|Austin Erwin]]
| successor4          = [[Kenneth R. Willard|Kenneth Willard]]
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1922|11|2}}
| birth_place         = [[Warsaw, New York|Warsaw]], [[New York (state)|New York]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|2003|11|30|1922|11|2}}
| death_place         = [[Sarasota, Florida|Sarasota]], [[Florida]], U.S.
| party               = [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| spouse              = Charlotte Williams
| education           = [[Cornell University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])
}}
'''Barber Benjamin Conable Jr.''' (November 2, 1922 – November 30, 2003) was a [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Congressman]] from [[New York (state)|New York]] and former [[president of the World Bank Group]].

==Biography==
Conable was born in [[Warsaw (town), New York|Warsaw, New York]] on November 2, 1922. Conable was an [[Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)|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 [[U.S. Marines|Marines]] and was sent to the Pacific front in [[World War II]], where he learned to speak [[Japanese language|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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fleming|first1=James S|title=Window on Congress: A Congressional Biography of Barber B. Conable Jr.|date=2004|publisher=University of Rochester Press|isbn=9781580461283|pages=34–36|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pi1bFoMci0wC&q=telluride}}</ref>  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 aureus|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 serving one term in the New York State Senate, he was elected to the [[U.S. House of Representatives]] in 1964 from a [[Rochester, New York|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 member of the House Ways and Means Committee,<ref name=":05">{{Cite book |last=Lampton |first=David M. |title=Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War |date=2024 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-1-5381-8725-8 |location=Lanham, MD |pages= |author-link=David M. Lampton}}</ref>{{Rp|page=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.
[[File:Barber Conable on April 5, 1973 (cropped).jpg|left|thumb|Barber Conable on April 5, 1973]]
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]]''.<ref>{{YouTube|D3N2sNnGwa4|Free to Choose}} (Conable's segment begins at approximately 37:20)</ref>

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.<ref name=":05" />{{Rp|page=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 [[1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre|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.<ref name=":05" />{{Rp|page=205}} In Conable's view, those elements were motivated by the desire to improve their position in the [[1992 U.S. presidential election|1992 election]] by being overly harsh on China.<ref name=":05" />{{Rp|page=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 [[Chinese economic reform|economic reform]].<ref name=":05" />{{Rp|page=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.<ref name=":05" />{{Rp|page=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."<ref name=":05" />{{Rp|page=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}}.
* [http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM02794.html Papers] at Cornell University.

==References==
<references />

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
* [https://www.worldbank.org/en/archive/history/past-presidents/barber-conablel Conable's career at the World Bank]
* {{Find a Grave|8148128|access-date=2008-01-13}}
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/02/nyregion/02CONA.html?ex=1385787600&en=3bf61703ec2bb726&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND Conable's obituary in the ''New York Times'']
* [https://www.theguardian.com/usa/story/0,12271,1098611,00.html Conable's obituary in the ''Guardian'']
* [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000666 Conable in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress]
* {{C-SPAN|61103}}

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[[Category:1922 births]]
[[Category:2003 deaths]]
[[Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War]]
[[Category:Cornell Law School alumni]]
[[Category:Deaths from staphylococcal infection]]
[[Category:Republican Party New York (state) state senators]]
[[Category:People from Warsaw, New York]]
[[Category:Presidents of the World Bank Group]]
[[Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state)]]
[[Category:United States Marines]]
[[Category:Phi Delta Theta members]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the New York State Legislature]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives]]