PACIFIC BASIN ECONOMIC COUNCIL
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Dr. Gibson, a PBEC founder, dies Dr. Weldon B. "Hoot" Gibson, a founding member of PBEC, passed away on May 6 in his home on the Stanford University campus. Dr. Gibson was an integral member of the PBEC family. His career spanned more than six decades of tireless effort, and success, in improving relations and fostering greater business contacts between the nations of the world. Dr. Gibson has been an outstanding member of PBEC and indeed the world community as a whole. His long list of accomplishments shows his unyielding desire to bring the people of the world together through free trade and mutual cooperation. A true testament to this commitment is found in these succinct words by Lord Keaton: "I have the most profound admiration for what he has done for SRI and for International Business, and I know of no one, absolutely no one, who has more friends in more places 'round the globe." Dr. Gibson graduated from Washington State University in 1938. In 1940, he received his MBA degree at Stanford University. Dr. Gibson's academic education was interrupted during the war years where he served in the United States Air Force from 1941 - 1946, achieving the rank of Colonel. Returning to civilian life, he became an assistant director of the USAF Institute of Technology at Dayton, Ohio. In 1947, Dr. Gibson returned to school at Stanford University earning his Ph.D. in 1950 at the University's Graduate School of Business. During this time he was also one of the first persons to join SRI - then known as the Stanford Research Institute - as Director of Economic Research and Chairman of International Programs. (See the SRI News Release.) During the 1950s, Dr. Gibson continued his dedicated work in expanding SRI operations to include research projects around the world. He organized and directed more than 80 major international conferences for senior executives in 25 countries. In 1956, he was named Associate Director of SRI and Vice President in 1959, followed by Executive Vice President in 1960. Dr. Gibson's role in the early days of PBEC, then known as the Pacific Basin Economic Cooperation Committee, began in 1967, when the late Shigeo Nagano approached him to act as an intermediary with prospective U.S. and Canadian companies in an effort to encourage their active participation in the new organization. Since that initial contact, Dr. Gibson has actively been involved in the development of PBEC from its initial origins in the 1960s to the force that it is today in the pacific region. Dr. Gibson was instrumental in having the International Secretariat housed at SRI for its first twenty years, and it was during this period that Dr. Gibson became the first Director General from 1974 - 1983. Along the way, Dr. Gibson's foresight and critical understanding of the issues of the day were vital to the formation of numerous groundbreaking initiatives. One of these, the Pacific Basin Charter on International Investment, was so far ahead of its time that only in today's climate of rapid globalization are the necessities of such an initiative being understood by the leaders of many countries. Then Indonesian Prime Minister Suharto was even noted as saying that he used the charter as a blueprint for opening his country to the world. Dr. Gibson was also the first to recognize early on that if PBEC was to survive and play an integral role in the Pacific, it was critical to encourage the participation of all the economies in the region, not just the five original members. To further this end, he assisted in the creation of PBEC's "6th" member, the Regional Member Committees, consisting of the Pacific Basin's developing and least developed economies. This committee had the dual effect of ending the perception that PBEC was "a rich nations' club" and also allowed the developing countries of the world to have a voice in matters that would directly effect them. In 1983, PBEC awarded the special honor of Founder - Lifetime Member to Dr. Gibson at the 16th International General Meeting in Santiago, Chile. At this same meeting a resolution of appreciation was recorded acknowledging Dr. Gibson's long and dedicated service to PBEC. At our Millennium Meeting - the 33rd International General Meeting held in Honolulu in March 2000 - Dr. Gibson was presented with a Hawaiian paddle for his outstanding service and dedication to PBEC International. Ocean navigation was a focal point of Hawaiian society, and it was in this same manner that Dr. Gibson's unwavering dedication and initiative helped all of us navigate our way through the turbulent and unclear waters that were the early days of PBEC. Early in his career, the United States government presented Dr. Gibson the Medal of the Legion of Merit. The following year the British government bestowed upon him the honorary title of Commander of the British Empire. Stanford University, through SRI, named their highest award after him, the Weldon B. Gibson Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions by an SRI employee that have had a noteworthy impact on the standard of living and on the peace and prosperity of society. He has given over a million dollars in gifts back to his alma mater, where they have the Gibson Family Presidential Scholarship and the Bailey & Gibson Endowed Athletic Scholarship. Washington State also presented Dr. Gibson with the Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest honor bestowed by that Institution. Dr. Gibson was 84 years old and is survived by his wife Helen, son David and grandson Ruben. The memorial service is scheduled for July 10 at the Stanford Memorial Church. For more information, contact Kathy Piper at kathy@compfin.com. Contributions in his memory may be sent to: The Dr. Weldon B. Gibson Memorial Fund Peninsula Community Foundation 1700 South El Camino Real, Suite 300 San Mateo, California 94402-3049