The Washington Post, Sunday, February 5, 2006

Jose Luis Restrepo, OAS Staff Member

Jose Luis Restrepo, 75, a senior-level staff member at the Organization of American States for more than 35 years, died of a heart attack Jan. 26 while attending an opera at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He was a McLean resident.

Mr. Restrepo worked at the OAS as chief of staff to Secretary General Alejandro Orfila in the early 1980s and as a senior adviser to the two subsequent secretaries general until 1998.

He was a prolific writer in the fields of economics, development, political and social affairs and Latin American affairs. He wrote weekly articles for Medellin's El Mundo newspaper and most recently for MiColumna.com. He volunteered for a variety of charitable organizations, including the Spanish Catholic Center in Washington. After becoming a U.S. citizen, he volunteered for the Virginia gubernatorial campaign of Timothy M. Kaine.

Mr. Restrepo, a 44-year resident of the Washington area, was born in Medellin, Colombia, and graduated with a law degree from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in 1953. Two years later, he earned a master's degree in business administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

He then worked as the director of city planning in Medellin and was a professor of economics at Universidad Bolivariana and a professor of economic analysis at the Universidad de Medellin, where he also organized the public administration faculty and became the acting provost.

From 1961 to 1962, he served as the national budget director in Colombia.

In 1962, Mr. Restrepo and his family moved to Washington, where he worked at the Pan-American Union as an economic adviser to the Committee of Nine of the Alliance for Progress. Subsequently he joined the OAS, where he remained until his retirement in 1998.

Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Maria Rosario Restrepo of McLean; five children, Luis Felipe Restrepo of Swarthmore, Pa., Patricia Restrepo Loria of McLean, Nicolas Cipriano Restrepo of Winchester, David Restrepo of New York City and Daniel Alberto Restrepo of Silver Spring; and 20 grandchildren.