UH economist was noted scholar

Meheroo Jussawalla, a contributor to the field of economics and an affiliate professor at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, died July 29 in Albuquerque, N.M. She was 89.

Jussawalla moved to the United States from India in 1975 under pressure from the Marxist government of Indira Gandhi because her economic beliefs were too capitalist, her family said.

The daughter of an attorney and a homemaker made many scholarly contributions in India despite its strong prejudice against female scholars. Her family said an Indian law at the time required that she leave her home country with no more than $6 worth of belongings, so she took only her books, lecture notes and some warm clothes.

After teaching at St. Mary’s College in Maryland for two years, Jussawalla moved to Hawaii to take a position as a researcher at the East-West Center’s Communications Institute.

Jussawalla’s family said she was one of the first classically trained economists who realized that communications is an important factor in building models for economic development, and she was able to see her research put into practice regarding rapid economic growth in the Pacific Rim during the ’80s and ’90s.

She was also a practicing Zoroastrian and an active member of Unity Church of Hawaii in Diamond Head, they said.

She is survived by daughter Feroza Jussawalla and grandson Hormuzdiyar Henry Dasenbrock.