Edward Horesh was a founding member of the University and the main designer and first Director of Studies of the Economics Degree Scheme (1966-77). He died peacefully on 12 March 2023, aged 95.
He carried out his compulsory military service before going to university. The service included a posting to Germany during the Berlin Blockade. Edward came home in ill health, but eventually was able to take up a place to read economics at the LSE. As a subject, Economics was then in transition, between a descriptive study and a more formal mathematically based inquiry. Edward was enthused by the increased formalisation, but also happy to engage in more descriptive approaches to the subject. LSE Economics degrees of that period included a very significant role for political thought and practice. Edward retained that balance in his own work, and in the degree programmes he helped design.
Sometime after leaving the LSE, Edward was appointed to the University of Ghana at Kumasi, and it was there he developed his teaching and research skills. He also found time to gather news and develop insights into West Africa. These he sent to the Economist. He claimed to have introduced the term charisma into Ghanaian politics. Edward also worked on a manuscript on development, but this was unfortunately lost when he was travelling in Nigeria.
Returning to Britain he was appointed to teach Economics at the Bristol College of Science and Technology. The University Grants Commission decreed that in 1966 this college would move to Bath and form the core of the last of the Robbins Report universities. While in Bristol, Edward had thrown himself into the work of the Economics Association. This focussed on developing the subject in schools and colleges. For several years he edited their journal Economics.
As what was to become Bath`s School of Social Sciences grew he also promoted a strong inter-disciplinary group of development studies specialists, fostered postgraduate development studies, and contributed to influential research that challenged the tying of aid and trade. After retirement in 1992, he found much friendship and stimulation in the activities of the Centre for Development Studies. He also took great enjoyment in hearing from his former students, many of whom kept in touch long after their graduation. Edward also established research and teaching links with the University of Malawi at Zomba. Over fifteen years, and with the help of Malawian colleagues, the British Council, and the European Union, we exchanged staff, explored the theory and practice of Malawian state enterprises, and set up a link where Malawian MSc students studied for part of their degree in Bath.
Overall, he had a long and successful career teaching economics, building degree programmes, and setting up opportunities for others to undertake research into important areas of development economics. Edward had a productive and successful career that made a significant contribution to the growing reputation of the University of Bath.
Dr Colin Lawson Honorary Reader in Economics