In Memoriam
Andres McAlister
Our friend and colleague Andres McAlister died on March 27, 2022, in Montevideo, Uruguay. He was 70.
Andres was a gentleman, a most lively, caring, generous, and supportive human being, a mentor, a friend, humorous and witty, a positive thinker, an amazing tango dancer, and a great professional. He retired from the Bank in 2003 from the Information Management group in ISG/ITS, after 29 years with the Bank, but he continued to work with us for a total of over 40 years! Andres raised generations of records managers and put in place a pivotal advisory board for the WBG Archives, thanks to a grant he obtained from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in the late 1990s. He is the one who planted the seed of the Archives opening to external researchers that we are implementing today!
Andres worked previously in the InterAmerican Development Bank. He started his World Bank career in the then Records and Communications Division of the Administrative Services Department. Later, he moved to the Documents Acquisition and Control Section, where he ran the Information Referral Service, answering request for information as a place of last resort and producing the Information Resources Guide as a natural extension of this service. He was one of the first users of the Central Word Processing service and was discouraged to do so by his boss, who said, “Those systems being completely unreliable; use typewriters instead.”
He later managed what is today the Internal Documents Unit (IDU in ITS Knowledge & Information Services) and Micrographics Operation, leading the transformation from the old Reports Desk into the first stages of the IDU. He also played a major role in the creating and management of the Integrated Documents Management System Database (IDMS) for the Bank reports and managed its operation. Andres also brought into the Bank the first microfiche scanners in an effort to start moving into the digital era.
Andres was part of the Policy Committee of the Records Management Division and Acting Section Chief for long periods of time during the hard pre-1987 reorganization days.
Later, Andres became Reports Control Officer of the Bank and set up systems to organize, collect, index, and retrieve all major series of the Bank’s internal publications and some external ones that are today housed in Documents & Reports.
He later set up an Advisory Group to help in making the Archives accessible to the public researchers.
Donations in memory of Andres can be made to the Uruguayan American Foundation (UAF). If you visit the homepage of the Foundation, you will find the announcement of Andres’ passing and a few beautiful pictures.
He will be sorely missed and remembered for his great laugh, good spirits and warm smile.
Charles Ziegler
