Paul W. Barkley has made a career of teaching agricultural economists the strengths and weaknesses of their science and the need for them to communicate in such a way as to leave no doubt about what has been and what has not been said. Additionally, he has made major contributions to the fields of rural (community) development and environmental economics, and he has served the AAEA in a large number of important ways.

Barkley was raised on a small farm in Central California. After a year in California's Junior College system, he enrolled in Oregon State University's agricultural economics program, completing the BS and MS in four years. An instructorship at Kansas State University followed. During this time, Barkley took the classes needed for the PhD, had full responsibility for two principles of economics classes, and taught graduate-level resource economics classes.

While at Kansas State, Barkley became one of the nation's earliest extension specialists in rural development. His publications from this era remain classics. In the mid 1960s, he attended a series of state, regional, and national meetings that eventually led to the formation of regional projects and to his authoring a number of papers that spelled out the limitations of using mainstream economic concepts to study small area or community problems.

Later, while on the faculty at Colorado State University, he collaborated with David Seckler to write a pathbreaking classic in environmental economics. Economic Growth and Environmental Decay: The Solution Becomes the Problem, was a best seller for many years. It cast common environmental concerns in technical terms and provided the theoretical structure and conceptual basis that led many of today's agricultural economists into studies related to the environment. The key lay in the book's ability to communicate.

Even with these accomplishments, Barkley's greatest contribution to the profession has been his long and unselfish service to the American Agricultural Economics Association. Few have given more time and energy to the organization. In the mid 1970s, AAEA President Jim Bonnen asked Barkley to chair the Professional Activities Committee. He served on this committee for fourteen yearsÑeight as chair. Under his leadership, the Professional Activities Committee worked to insure that the Association developed new and more liberal rules for participation in the annual meeting. The committee itself began the poster sessions and the learning workshops. With work on the Professional Activities Committee complete, Barkley chaired the committee that put the AAEA Foundation in place and served on the Adaptive Planning Committee. He helped select and polish articles for the 75th Special Anniversary Issue of AJAE, and he has served for a decade on the Choices Advisory Board.

An intensely professional worker, Barkley divides his time among his own work; mentoring students in classes that are always well prepared, well taught, and well received; and helping colleagues understand the conceptual problems in their work. His insistence on correctness and clarity in exposition is perhaps unmatched in the profession. This means that his desk is always covered with manuscripts that have been sent to him by editors and colleagues asking for help in conveying the message their work has revealed. This insistence on correctness and his knowledge of the boundaries of economic science have also led to his highly respected role as a discussant and provocateur. While he has given numerous "major papers" in any number of settings, he is probably better known and more productive in his role of providing insights on the work of others.

Barkley is a voracious reader of books, papers, and monographs directly and tangentially related to his profession. A visit to his office raises questions as to whether anything could come from the apparently eclectic collection of materials that line the walls. Moments (or hours!) of conversation would reveal that these materials have been absorbed and they are providing new thoughts on how to define problems and how to synthesize information so as to improve its usefulness in economic analysis and policy.