Richard Sabot (February 16, 1944 – July 6, 2005) was an

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this field there are ...

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researc ...

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer m ...

, and

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

pioneer who was co-founder of Tripod.com, one of the first and most successful dot-coms, in 1992. (It was subsequently sold to

Lycos Lycos, Inc., is a web search engine and web portal established in 1994, spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. Lycos also encompasses a network of email, web hosting, social networking, and entertainment websites. The company is based in Walth ...

in 1998) He was also a co-founder of Eziba (later acquired by Overstock.com), an Internet venture which sold handcrafted goods from artisans around the world. He was a professor emeritus of economics at

Williams College Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...

, and previously taught at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

, and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He was a leading figure in building the Internet economy of

Williamstown, Massachusetts Williamstown is a town in the northern part of Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, United States. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolit ...

, where the

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

ran past enough digital businesses in the

dot-com era The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet. Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compo ...

to earn the nickname "Silicon River" He was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and attended college at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

and completed his doctorate at

. He subsequently worked for ten years at the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Inte ...

and was also a senior advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank and

International Food Policy Research Institute The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) is an international agricultural research center founded in the early 1970s to improve the understanding of national agricultural and food policies to promote the adoption of innovations ...

. He wrote or edited a dozen books on development economics and was co-author of several influential papers in the field, including ''The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy''. He served on the board of directors of several companies including

Geekcorps Geekcorps is a non-profit organization that sends people with technical skills to developing countries to assist in computer infrastructure development. The non-profit was created in 2000 by Ethan Zuckerman and Elisa Korentayer in North Adams, ...

, and the

International Executive Service Corps International Executive Service Corps is an international economic development not-for-profit organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C. IESC was founded in 1964 by David Rockefeller, States M. Mead III, Frank Pace, Sol Linowitz, and other ...

. He was an active member of the executive board of the

Center for Global Development The Center for Global Development (CGD) is a nonprofit think tank based in Washington, D.C., and London that focuses on international development. History It was founded in November 2001 by former senior U.S. official Edward W. Scott, direc ...

; an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College,

(UK); and a member of the Boards of Overseers of the College of Arts and Sciences of the

and of

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philant ...

. At the time of his death, Sabot was launching a new business, Cricket Creek Farm, focused on producing organic milk and specialty cheeses. He died in 2005, aged 61, of a heart attack near his home in

, and was survived by his wife, Jude Sabot and their four children.

External links

Obituary in Berkshire Eagle

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sabot, Dick 1944 births 2005 deaths Economists from New York (state) American computer businesspeople Businesspeople from New York City People from Williamstown, Massachusetts University of Pennsylvania alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Williams College faculty Yale University faculty Columbia University faculty American male non-fiction writers Center for Global Development Economists from Massachusetts 20th-century American economists 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American male writers