Professor Donald Harris is this year’s only recipient of the Order of Merit, Jamaica’s third-highest honour, for his outstanding contributions to national development.
He leads the list of 144 Jamaicans who will be given National Honours and Awards this year.
A professor emeritus at Stanford University, Harris has made significant contribution to the field of development economics. He is particularly well known for examining the challenges posed to developing countries like Jamaica.
He is also the father of Jamaican-American U.S. Vice President, Kamala Harris. Donald Harris was born in Brown’s Town, St. Ann Parish, Jamaica. Harris studied at the University College of the West Indies and earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of London in 1960 and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966.
While studying in Berkeley, he met Shyamala Gopalan, a graduate student in nutrition and endocrinology from India. They married in 1963 and had two children, Kamala and Maya Harris. The couple divorced in 1971.
Other honorees this year include Olympic champions Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah, who will both get the fifth-highest honor, the Order of Distinction.
