Carl M. Frisén, first Chief of ESCAP Population Division, dies at 92

By John Loftus

People were at the centre of Carl M. Frisén’s life, whether as individuals or as entire populations numbering in millions.
Carl had the knack of making every person with whom he spoke feel as if he or she was the sole focus of his kind attention. Likewise, the burgeoning populations of the vast Asian and Pacific region benefited greatly from his caring focus and energetic work on their behalf during his long and productive career with the United Nations.
A demographer and visionary, Carl died on 22 October 2005 at Mercy San Juan Hospital in Sacramento California. He had turned 92 on 18 April.

Mr. Carl Frisén (left) attending a Conference. Next to him is Mr. J.B.P. Maramis from Indonesia, Executive Secretary of ESCAP from 1973 to 1981.

On 13 October, he and his wife, Peggy, had returned to Sacramento from their summer cabin at Blairsden, in the Sierra Mountains near Lake Tahoe. A few days later he became fatigued and developed a bad cough that he could not shake off. Within days of being admitted to the hospital, he died from pneumonia; doctors also noted that he had had an irregular heart beat. He died peacefully and had not been in pain, witnesses said. It should be mentioned that Carl’s mind remained sharp to the very end of his life.
Carl is survived by his wife, Peggy, and a grandnephew, Mr. James Pederson, who works for the State of California. Carl’s first wife, Lila Fae Frisén, preceded him in death on 17 April 1993 at Bangkok after a long illness. Neither marriage produced any children.
Carl earned a Ph.D. in demography from Stanford University in the late 1940s. After a short stint teaching at Colorado State University, he returned to California where he established in the 1950s the Population Research Unit in the State Department of Finance. Besides making population projections, it served to unify reporting and the way counties and cities addressed population issues. That Unit is still functioning to this day.
In the early 1960s, Carl accepted assignments with the United Nations, which had just begun to focus on population issues in the post-Second World War period when population growth rates started to grow alarmingly.
Carl was a superb organizer. He arranged a number of meetings and seminars on population issues for what was then known as the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE).
One of the most important of Carl’s early tasks was the convening of the Asian Population Conference at New Delhi in 1963. That Conference assessed the current population situation and made countries in the region aware of the complexities of population issues and their likely adverse consequences if they were not addressed in a systematic manner. Such meetings were the mechanisms by which Asian countries made their historic policy decisions for fertility limitation; in this regard, they led the rest of the world.
For the representatives of many governments, that meeting was a real eye-opener. More than 60 per cent of the increase in the global population between the 1960s and the year 2000 was projected to occur in Asia. Because the region already had the largest and poorest populations in the world, Asia became a priority for United Nations action. Owing to the continuing importance of population issues such as fertility, family planning, mortality and migration, among many others, Asian Population Conferences were subsequently organized every 10 years, the most recent being in December 2002.
Carl’s early work with the United Nations was pioneering and resulted in a 180-degree shift in policy for many of the countries in the region. Most had been pronatalist, thinking that larger populations would result in greater production and economic growth. However, they soon recognized the fallacy of that assumption.
Carl’s work got a strong boost with the establishment in 1969 of the Population Division in ECAFE, which five years later was renamed the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), and the operations of the then United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). UNFPA supported the secretariat’s work financially. Carl was made the Chief of the Division, which was then the largest in the ESCAP secretariat. He was extremely effective in his work and the Division was always a hive of activity and source of new information and knowledge on population dynamics.
During the time Carl was Chief, the ESCAP Population Division aided countries in the region by providing technical assistance in a number of population areas directly to government offices. It also provided training for national population personnel through a variety of workshops, training courses and seminars. Further, it provided fellowships for advanced demographic and other types of training at institutes and universities both within and outside the region.
The Division also organized and supported many research projects on population issues in the region. Finally, major focus was given to the collection and dissemination of many types of population information to policy makers, planners and researchers throughout the region. Even after his retirement in 1976, Carl contributed to the advancement of the information component of the Division’s work by drawing up the plan and terms of reference for the Asia-Pacific Population Journal, a publication that continues to this day.
When the history of the “Asian Miracle” and the policy revolutions that preceded it is finally written, Carl’s many contributions through his work in ESCAP will certainly stand out as not only catalytic but also essential to the deep changes and improvements in Asian and Pacific societies.
For a number of years after his retirement he lived in Bangkok, during which time his successors often sought his wise counsel. During this period, he was also active in the Thai academic community, being involved in research and writing papers on population topics.
Carl remained extremely popular with all his former staff and those in universities focusing on population issues. It was only after Lila’s death and two bouts with cancer and hepatitis that he decided to return to a cooler climate than was available in bustling Bangkok. He married Peggy on 18 December 1996. A Thai national, she had been a long-time friend of the Frisén family from their early days in Bangkok.
Those who would like to send condolences may write to his widow at the following address: Mrs. Carl M. Frisén, 2459 Werbe Lane, Apt. 136/Box 36, Carmichael, CA 95608, USA.