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Obituary: Professor Herbert Ian Behrmann

Professor HI Behrmann, a former Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Natal in South Africa, has died at the age of 88. Professor Behrmann matriculated at Maritzburg College and studied at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, where he obtained a BSc and an MSc in Agricultural Economics. After serving in food production within the South African military during World War II, he worked for the government service in Johannesburg. During this time, Professor Behrmann also wrote lunchtime market reports for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). He later taught at various agricultural colleges, including Cedara College. In 1946 he married his late wife, Rene Harris. They had three children, a daughter Yvonne and two sons, Claude and Peter.

Professor Behrmann was appointed as a Lecturer in Agricultural Economics at the University of Natal in 1948, a year after the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Natal was established. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1956. In 1960 he obtained his PhD on the economics of sugarcane production and became Professor and Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Natal. He was awarded the Founder’s Medal and Prize of the Economic Society of South Africa for his PhD thesis. He was a founder member of the Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA) in 1961, President of AEASA from 1977-1979, and was later elected as an honorary member of AEASA. He served as a country representative for South Africa in the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) from 1975-1986, and was on the IAAE Editorial Advisory Board of Agricultural Economics from 1985-1991. He was awarded life membership of the IAAE in 2003. Although he retired from academia in 1983, Professor Behrmann regularly visited the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Natal and attended many local and international conferences. He remained an active tennis player up to the age of 84.

Professor Behrmann was a keen ornithologist. He also belonged to the Genealogical Society, and wrote his family history, tracing it from 1883. He is survived by his three children, four grandsons and a granddaughter. A memorial service for Professor Behrmann was held in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, on Thursday 4 January 2007.