Obituary
Angelos Pagoulatos
Angelos Pagoulatos, PhD, passed away June 14, 2016. Dr. Pagoulatos was a professor in the University of Kentucky Agricultural Economics department for 37 years, from 1975 until his retirement in 2012.
He was born in Athens, Greece, and did his undergraduate work at the University of Rome, finishing a degree in 1968. He came to the U.S. in 1969 and completed a PhD in resource economics at Iowa State University in 1975 under the direction of Dr. John F. Timmons. His dissertation was titled, “Major Determinants Affecting the Demand and Supply of Energy Resources in the United States”, and a summary was published in the Western Journal of Agricultural Economics in 1978 under the title “Government Price Policies and the Availability of Crude Oil.” (As an indication of how our discipline has evolved, that manuscript was previously rejected for review by AJAE on the grounds that crude oil was not a resource of concern to agricultural economists.) Dr Pagoulatos developed a well-deserved reputation for pressing the boundaries of what was then considered to be a problem of interest to applied resource economists.
A prolific researcher and journal-article writer, he received the UK College of Agriculture Thomas Poe Cooper award in 1979 for outstanding research productivity while he was still an associate professor.
Dr. Pagoulatos was interested in Benefit/Cost (project) analysis, and used that as core content in the undergraduate and graduate resource economics courses he taught. He also trained students worldwide via workshops in Benefit/Cost and project analysis, usually under the sponsorship of the U.S. Agency for International Development. He developed materials when digital media was in its early stages, and developed a method for making and converting digital slide shows (Harvard Graphics®-based, pre-PowerPoint®) to VHS videotape, and then used these videotapes in his international training sessions (Some of that content is now available in pdf format on ageconsearch.umn.edu under “Introduction to Benefit Cost and Project Analysis”.)
Dr. Pagoulatos was an editor of the Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics (JAAE) for the 1993-1995 volumes as the transition occurred from the former Southern Journal of Agricultural Economics (SJAE). Subsequently, he co-developed a new format for the Review of Agricultural Economics during its transition in sponsorship from the North Central department chairs to the AAEA. He then served as editor of the Review of Agricultural Economics (subsequently renamed “Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy”) for the 1997 and 1998 volumes.
Dr. Pagoulatos was a wordsmith, fluent in Greek, Italian, French, English and Latin, with a working knowledge of other languages including German. He was a walking etymological guide to the history and origins of words and without hesitation could explain the origins of practically any word used in journal-article writing.
His remarkable skills as both a teacher and as a writer will be greatly missed. He left a large group of former students, both undergraduate and graduate, who greatly benefited from his research and teaching skills. He is survived by his son Timothy Shannon; sister Elena Pagoulatos; brother Emilo Pagoulatos; niece Liliana Dikis and nephew Victor Dikis. He was preceded in death by his parents Christopher and Maria (Prati) Pagoulatos.