As a fourth grader, Eric Battalio, Class of 1993, told his teacher and classmates about how his economist father, Raymond Battalio, Texas A&M professor of economics, did experiments with rats.
“(My teacher said,) ‘Your dad’s an economist – that’s silly that your dad would be doing experiments with rats,'” Eric said. “My dad said, ‘Well, gee, we obviously do.'”
Raymond Battalio, a professor at A&M for 35 years, died Dec. 1 of cancer in his home at the age of 66. At his funeral at St. Joseph Catholic Church on Sunday, his friend and colleague John Van Huyck, professor of economics, said Raymond used rats in his economics experiments because he was not only an economist, but a scientist, psychologist and sociologist as well, and that he wanted to integrate concepts from all fields in his research.
“That was Ray’s passion – to make accurate observations,” Van Huyck said. “He was very well known for running clean experiments.”
Van Huyck said Raymond, unlike many other economists, wanted to gather his own data and would do so by studying the data from “token economies,” or groups of human subjects in a controlled environment whose spending habits could be closely monitored with the result of accurate data that could support or refute economic theories.
Van Huyck said Raymond chose to conduct similar experiments with lab rats because, as a scientist, he could change the amount of wealth each rat had, whereas he could not do that with human subjects for ethical reasons.
Eric Battalio said that as a child, he often went to work with his dad and helped him in his labs.
“I also used to run my skateboard through the halls – (people working in the building) used to let me do that,” Eric said. “I guess when your father’s the professor, you integrate a lot of the academic life into your regular life. He was one of the better academics as far as I was concerned.”
John W. Allen, professor of economics, also gave a speech at Raymond’s funeral and said Raymond was dedicated to his students.
“To the end (Raymond was) dedicated to his students, his profession,” Allen said. “He was really a good teacher; one who cared about his students. One who didn’t have office hours because his door was always open.”
Eric said he remembers a cover of Fortune magazine that featured a picture of Raymond and colleague John Kagel with long hair working on an experiment with rats in the late 1970s surrounded by wires in their lab.
“The picture’s impressive because they’re not mad scientists, but they certainly did look like guys with a mission,” Eric said.
Raymond is survived by his wife Nancy and his sons Eric and Robert, who both attended A&M and Joe, who attends Blinn College.