After a distinguished career abroad with the World Bank, Robert Calderisi returned to Montreal, where he continues to write about aid to the developing world.
Ronald Calderisi, BSc 68, completed a medical degree and went to work in northern Canada as a general practitioner on Baffin Island and in Inuvik. Robert Calderisi, BA 68, made history by becoming Loyola College’s first Rhodes Scholar.
“It was one of the two or three happiest moments of my life, not just because it opened the doors to that ‘wider world’ but also because it honoured my professors and Loyola College,” says Robert.
One of those professors was Geoffrey Adams, then chair of the Department of History. “He kindled in me a love of learning,” says Robert Calderisi. Another of his Loyola mentors was Donald Savage, one of the first professors in Canada to teach African history — an area of knowledge that would prove integral to Robert Calderisi’s future career.
After Oxford, Robert continued studies in economics and went on to a distinguished career with the World Bank. He was the bank’s country division chief for Indonesia and the South Pacific from 1987 to 1989, head of the bank’s Regional Mission in Western Africa in the Ivory Coast from 1991 to 1994, and its international spokesman on Africa from 1997 to 2000 and country director for Central Africa from 2000 to 2002.
In 2002, Robert left the World Bank to pursue his passion for writing. His first book, The Trouble with Africa: Why Foreign Aid Isn’t Working, published in 2006, brought fresh perspectives to the field of developmental aid and garnered wide appeal.
“My main purpose is to encourage those who feel helpless about global poverty by showing them how far we have come, by shifting the discussion from the jargon of UN statements to the concrete achievements of individual people, communities and countries, and by replacing talk of constraints with inspiring examples of those who have overcome the odds,” he says.
Ronald Calderisi, for his part, went on to become a skilled surgeon and practised in Vancouver for much of his career. He passed away in 2005.
Soon after, Robert established the Dr. Ronald Calderisi Scholarship in Biochemistry at Concordia in memory of his brother.
Donald Savage, Loyola College history professor, with Robert Calderisi during graduation ceremonies on the Loyola Campus in 1968.