Parzival Copes, (22 January 1924 – 8 September 2017)
Parzival Copes Obituary
/ref> was a Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
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 ...
with a particular interest in regional science
Regional science is a field of the social sciences concerned with analytical approaches to problems that are specifically urban, rural, or regional. Topics in regional science include, but are not limited to location theory or spatial economics, ...
and specialization in fisheries economics and management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a Government agency, government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includ ...
.
Born in Nakusp, British Columbia
The Village of Nakusp (Sinixt ''neqo'sp'') is beside the mouth of Kuskanax Creek, on the Upper Arrow Lake in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. Lying between the Selkirk Mountains, Selkirk and Monashee Mountains, Monashe ...
, he moved with his family to the Netherlands in 1933 and was educated at Vierde Vijfjarige H.B.S. in Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
from 1936 to 1941. In 1942, he became active in 'underground' activities against the German occupation and in 1944 joined a Dutch resistance army unit. Later that year, he was arrested and spent time in prison and a penal labour camp Erika at Ommen
Ommen () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a Hanseatic League, Hanseatic city in the eastern Netherlands. It is located in the Vechte, Vecht valley of the Salland region in Overijssel. Historical records first name Ommen in ...
. In April 1945, he escaped from a prison convoy and met up with the advancing Canadian Army, where he was employed in uniform as an interpreter.
After spending a year with the British military government in Germany, he returned to Canada, and enrolled at the University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...
, where he also joined the Canadian Officers Training Corps in 1946. In 1949, he obtained a Commission. In the reserves, he served as Intelligence Officer with the Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa and later as Commanding Officer (rank of Major) of 112 Manning Depot in St. John's. He was awarded a Canadian Forces Decoration
The Canadian Forces' Decoration (post-nominal letters "CD") is a Canadian award bestowed upon members of the Canadian Armed Forces who have completed twelve years of military service, with certain conditions. By convention, it is also given to t ...
in 1963.
He received a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
degree in economics and political science in 1949 and a Master of Arts
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...
degree in economics in 1950 from the University of British Columbia. He earned his Ph.D. in economics in 1956 from the London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...
. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by Royal Roads Military College in Victoria, by the University of Tromsø
The University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway (Norwegian: ''Universitetet i Tromsø – Norges arktiske universitet''; Northern Sami: ''Romssa universitehta – Norgga árktalaš universitehta'') is a state university in Norway an ...
in Norway and by the Memorial University of Newfoundland.
From 1953 to 1957, he was an economist and statistician with the Dominion Bureau of Statistics The Dominion Bureau of Statistics was a Canadian government organization
An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -i ...
in Ottawa, where he was placed in charge of the Canadian Sickness Survey unit. In 1957, he was appointed Associate Professor—and subsequently Professor—at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and Head of the Department of Economics. In 1961, he proposed and helped create Memorial's Institute of Social and Economic Research and was its first Director of Economic Research.
In 1964, he was appointed Professor in the Department of Economics and Commerce at Simon Fraser University
Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...
, serving as founding Head of the department until 1969 and as Chairman from 1972 to 1975. In 1968, he introduced Canada's first Executive MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accoun ...
program. He organized the Centre for Canadian Studies, serving as Director from 1978 to 1985. From 1980 to 1994 he was founding Director of the Institute of Fisheries Analysis. In 1991, he was appointed Emeritus Professor.
He has served as President of the Canadian Regional Science Association, the Western Regional
Science Association and the Pacific Regional Science Conference Organization, and as Vice-President of the Social Science Federation of Canada and the Canadian Economics Association.
In 1992 he was named a Foreign Fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences
The Russian Academy of Natural Sciences ( Russian: Российская академия естественных наук) is a Russian non-governmental organization founded on August 31 1990 in Moscow in the former Soviet Union, following a de ...
. He was the first recipient of the Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy in 1994 and received the Distinguished Service Award of the International Institute of Fisheries Economics and Trade in 1996. In 2005, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the cen ...
.
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Copes, Parzival
1924 births
2017 deaths
Canadian economists
Dutch resistance members
Canadian people of Dutch descent
Officers of the Order of Canada
People from the Regional District of Central Kootenay
Alumni of the London School of Economics
University of British Columbia alumni
Academic staff of Simon Fraser University
Regional economists