Dr. William Batt, R.I.P.

I recently learned by emails from two friends that the elderly Georgist Dr. William H. Batt has died. I had earlier heard that he was ill, and wanted to hear from people, so I sent him an email. I didn’t get around to making a phone call, or writing to him on paper. I wasn’t sure whether a telephone call would have been a welcome diversion or a nuisance, and with other things to do, I lost track. I do regret not saying something more to him these past few days.

We have long been friends and fellow board members of at least one Georgist organization. I remember his displays of geodata at Georgist conferences, using mapping to show the concentrations of land value in certain regions of towns. He was an early Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand back in the early sixties, and remained in touch with Thai friends, including a retired naval officer, Admiral Suchong if I have the name right, who had translated Henry George’s Progress and Poverty into Thai.

Dr. Batt had also been active in Albany, trying to influence New York State’s dysfunctional government toward land value taxation. In his old age, he had been companion of a retired woman doctor (of the medical sort, maybe a pediatrician; Bill Batt himself had a Ph.D. rather than an M.D.), whom I have had the pleasure of meeting. She died before he did.

Rest In Peace, both of you, Bill and Karen, rest in honored remembrance.