Víctor Urquidi was born in
Neuilly, France. Considered one of the most outstanding Mexican economists of the 20th century, he earned a first degree in economics at the
London School of Economics in 1940 and, in 1941, joined the economic studies department of the
Banco de México (Mexico's central bank). In July 1944, he was a member of the Mexican delegation to the
Bretton Woods Conference. He also worked at the federal
Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit, for the
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and was on the Executive Committee of the
Club of Rome. From 1949 to 1957 he was the editor of the journal
El Trimestre Económico. In 1964, Urquidi was one of the founders of the Centre for Economic and Demographic Studies of the
Colegio de México, which enabled the creation of Mexico's first postgraduate course in economics. He served as president of the
Colegio de México from 1966 to 1985 and, in 1989, was named
professor emeritus. On 1 August 1960, he was elected to the
National College, but resigned from it in 1968. He received the
National Science and Arts Prize in 1977 and the National Demography Prize in 1994 for his research into Mexican migration to the United States. Victor Urquidi had two children by his first marriage to Marjory Jean Mattingly: Joaquín Urquidi, born in 1947, and Marina Urquidi, born in 1949, both in Washington, DC, when he was working for the
World Bank. In 1982 he and Sheila Ann Breen were married and were together until Victor's death in
Mexico City in 2004. ==Works==