J. Price Gittinger, II

Dr. James Price Gittinger II (Price) was an expert in agricultural economics, a field designed to assist developing countries to increase the growth and efficiency of their agricultural and rural sectors.

He helped governments worldwide assess their countries’ development needs, form national plans on food policy issues, and improve food security. His major book, Economic Analysis of Agricultural Projects, was translated into four languages and used in universities worldwide. It provided tools and frameworks for assessing the economic viability of agricultural investments in developing countries, and ways to estimate whether those investments would improve the quality of life among rural laborers.

Price met his wife, Dr. Mattiebelle S. Gittinger, at Iowa State University. He was a graduate student studying agricultural economics and journalism; she was a journalism undergraduate. Both were curious and intrepid. They were married after graduation in March 1954 and quickly began a lifetime of international travel and adventures.

From 1954-1959, Price worked for the United States Operations Mission in Saigon, Vietnam, where he administered its program supporting agricultural reform even as the country darkened towards war. In 1960, he worked for the Harvard Advisory Group in Tehran, Iran, advising the government, and, in 1962, the couple moved to Bogor, Indonesia, where Price worked with its Department of Social Economics.

In 1965, he began a twenty-plus-year career with the Economic Development Institute of the World Bank, where he was chief of its Agriculture and Rural Development Division for a decade. After retiring from the World Bank, he taught and consulted.

Price and Mattiebelle both traveled extensively and often along less-traveled routes. In total, Price visited more than 65 countries for work. Those ranged from Bangladesh to Zimbabwe and included countries no longer extant, such as Upper Volta and Rhodesia.

Their diverse transportation modes included Indonesian river boats, Cambodian elephants, and tuk-tuks. In 1969, Mattiebelle (who never drove) purchased a new Volkswagen at its German factory. Price flew to meet her, and together, they drove through Europe, the Balkans, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to India. When they finally left India, they drove to Mumbai (Bombay), put the VW on a boat, shipped it to California, and then drove it to Washington, DC in the early 1970s. They resided there for more than forty years until moving to a nearby Maryland retirement community.

Throughout their travels, the couple were avid and well-educated collectors. Dr. Mattiebelle Gittinger was a foremost researcher and scholar in the field of Southeast Asian textiles. The couple developed a significant collection of those pieces, which was donated in its entirety to the George Washington University Textile Museum. They also donated collections to the National Museum of Asian Art (Washington, DC) and the Museum Tekstil (Jakarta, Indonesia). Locally, they supported ACLU, Sierra Club, and various food banks in the Washington, D.C. area.

Price enjoyed bicycling, reading, hiking, and birdwatching. He loved to drive. Price was born on October 13, 1928, in Davis, California, to James P. and Sceatta Gittinger.

Price received his B.S. in Agriculture from the University of California/Davis and Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Iowa State University. He authored and edited a number of books on food policy issues. He passed away on July 15, 2025, in Adamstown, MD, and was preceded in death by his wife of 69 years, Mattiebelle, and his only sibling, Frances Gittinger.

Price is survived by his two sisters-in-law, Shirley Jean Stimson Foster and Sharron Kay Stimson Goulding (Robert), and their children: Alan Foster (Kathi Marts-Foster), Michelle Foster (John Davenport), Denise Holck (Alan), Brad Goulding (Lori), Wendy Gatti (David), David Foster (Linda), Heather Goulding (Jack Hayes), and eleven great- nieces and nephews.

There will be a private service in his honor.