Michael Roemer, executive director of the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID), died unexpectedly on Dec. 13 at the age of 59.

Roemer's affiliation with HIID began in 1970. His tenure as executive director was the third time he accepted a leadership position in HIID, having served in the late 1970s and early '80s as deputy director and then executive director. During his affiliation with HIID, he also worked as a resident economic adviser in Kenya, Tanzania, and Indonesia. He was a senior lecturer in both the Department of Economics and the Kennedy School of Government.

At a memorial service for Roemer at Harvard's Hillel House, Jeffrey Sachs, current director of HIID, said, "Michael's [work] has literally improved the lives of millions in all parts of the world. His lifelong commitment to economic development was profound and his contributions were also profound."

Roemer's work in development began in 1962 in Kenya as part of a Ford Foundation-supported M.I.T. project. Two decades later he returned to that country as a senior adviser, producing among other things a report which still helps to guide Kenya's development strategy.

He also served in Indonesia in the late 1980s as head of HIID's large advisory team, which played a central role in helping that country's government reform its trade and tax policies and write new legislation modernizing its financial sector.

Roemer was an accomplished scholar and teacher as well as adviser and administrator. "Mike was the personification of what HIID strove to be," said former HIID director Dwight Perkins. "He brought his vast experience with economic policymaking overseas back into his Harvard classes and into the large body of research which he produced over the years."

A popular teacher in the Department of Economics and, in more recent years, the Kennedy School, Roemer was known for the clarity with which he could present concepts of macro- and development economics.

He was the author or co-author of nine books and numerous articles, including Africa and Asia: Legacies and Opportunities in Development (1994) and Markets in Developing Countries: Parallel, Fragmented and Black (1991), in addition to Economics of Development (4th ed., 1996), the leading text in the field.

Roemer graduated from Stanford University in 1959 with a bachelor's degree in engineering, held master's degrees in engineering and industrial development, and received his Ph.D. in economics from M.I.T. in 1967.

He leaves his wife Linda Cohen Roemer, who shared his involvement with the challenges facing developing countries; a daughter, Margery McDonald; a son Brian; and one grandchild.