Raymond Barre

He had married Eva Hegedus on November 19, 1945.

He has two sons Oliver and Nicolas from the marriage.

He had been suffering from heart problems and was transferred to a military hospital from Monaco on April 11, 2007.

Raymond Barre was born in Saint-Denis, on the island of Reunion, a French colony, on April 12, 1924. His father was a merchant settled in Reunion since 1843 named Rene Barre and his mother was Charlotte Deramond.

He spent his initial schooldays studying at the ‘l’ecole de l’Immaculee Conception’ and then the ‘lycee Leconte-de-Lisle’ located on Reunion.

In 1945, he was drafted into a French artillery unit and had to give up his dream of studying medicine.

The war ended and he returned to Paris on January 15, 1946 after being demobilized.

He joined the ‘Cite Internationale Universitaire’ and passed the aggregation exam for economics and law and got a diploma from the ‘Institut d’Etudes Politiques’ in Paris in 1950.

Raymond Barre was appointed as a professor at the ‘Faculty for Law and Economic Sciences of Caen’ but could not join the institute for four years as he was busy with the ‘Institute of Advanced Studies’ in Tunis.

He started teaching economics at the ‘Institute of Political Studies’, the ‘Faculty of Law and Economic’ in Paris and the ‘Ecole Centrale Paris’.

In 1959 he joined the Charles de Gaulle government as an advisor in the ‘Ministry of Industry and Trade’ where he served as the head of staff till 1962.

In 1966 he was made a consultant for the ‘Economic Planning Commission’ to advice on the ‘wage and price policies’ of the government.

In 1967 de Gaulle chose him as the vice-president of the ‘European Commission for Economic & Financial Affairs’.

Raymond Barre translated the book ‘Scientism and Social Science, Essay on the misuse of reason’ written by Friedrich Hayek into French in 1953.

He published his book on economics, Economie politique’ in 1956 which has remained an important textbook for students for a long time and has multiple editions.