In Memoriam

Donald Arthur Strombom

Don Strombom passed away on September 5, 2018 in Venice, Italy at the age of 87 years.

Don was known at the Bank for his unflappable manner, his honesty, his decency, and his consistently wise council. Those who worked with Don always considered him a trusted colleague.

Don was the Bank’s first urban division chief and then first urban assistant director before leading the procurement policy unit of the Bank. It is worth remembering that at that time, the predominant thinking around the world was that cities were a cause of problems, not a stimulus to national development. Don was a leader in the initial years of building the Bank’s understanding of cities. It was done with the low-key collegial spirit of learning that was so characteristic of Don.

The initial urban work program focused on urban planning studies. When lending started in 1971, it focused on slum improvement and sites and services programs that aimed to benefit the urban poor – with early projects in Senegal, Indonesia, and Chennai. All benefited from Don’s leadership and pragmatism[1].

Don’s reputation for integrity and no-nonsense pragmatism is what later propelled him to international recognition as an authority on procurement. Don went on to be Chief of Procurement Policy. He was widely recognized as an authority on international procurement policies. Policies developed by him have been adopted virtually intact by all multilateral development banks.

Don was the kind of calm, rock solid professional that the Bank’s client countries needed and that made the Bank the internationally respected organization that it was.

Don left the Bank in 1987 to establish International Development Business Consultants (IDBC), to advise the World Bank and others in the public and private sectors on procurement policies. IDBC, which later became a member company of the Centennial Group, worked in 30+ countries.

There are many things that can be said to describe Don’s character and strong values. Don felt that his birthplace in Buffalo, Wyoming had something to do with forming his character. In notes that he wrote on turning 80, he said that his family, when he was growing up in Wyoming barely made it over the middle-class economic category, but when it came to values, they were definitely in the higher-class category.

Telling his Venetian friends about his birthplace was also a source of amusement to Don. When Don mentioned Buffalo, Wyoming, he enjoyed watching them imagine a real cowboy riding the Venetian vaporetti.

Don said that his entire life he was criticized for not talking. “Criticized may be too strong,” he said – “people just remark that I don’t talk.” But when Don did talk, people listened, because they knew he had something to say that needed to be said.

Those who knew Don will remember him in many ways: kind, brilliant, caring, astute, and a wonderful friend.

Submitted by Praful Patel

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[1] For a fuller history of the World Bank’s urban sector, see: Donald Strombom, see “How The World Bank Tackled The Urban Dilemma,” in the 1818 Bulletin July 2017.