Jeswald W. Salacuse Obituary
Law, died on Thursday, July 25, 2024, in Boston, Massachusetts surrounded by his family. He was age 86. "None of us just leads a life or even makes one," Salacuse wrote in a memoir he was working on in the years before his death. "It is more accurate to say that we negotiate our lives. For each of us, whether sheltered in a condo on the east side of New York City or in a hut on the African savannah, living is a constant negotiation, a continual process of deal making.". Jeswald William Salacuse was born in 1938 in Niagara Falls, New York.
After graduating from Hamilton College, Harvard Law School, and earning a diploma from the University of Paris, he faced his first negotiation. His father, a lawyer, expected his son to join his solo law practice and settle down in Niagara Falls. Salacuse joined the Peace Corps instead and set off for Nigeria to teach law. It's a decision that would shape his life's work. While working briefly for a Wall Street law firm upon his return home, he met and married a girl from Chicago, Donna Booth. It wasn't long before they were off to Africa and the Middle East, where they would raise their two young children.
Salacuse served as a professor of law and director of research at the National School of Administration in the Congo; the Ford Foundation's Middle East advisor on law and development based in Beirut, Lebanon; and later the Foundation's representative in the Sudan. After settling in the States for good, Salacuse joined the law faculty at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, where he also served as dean, traveling and lecturing widely. He would go on to become the Henry J. Braker Professor of Law at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where he served as dean for nine years.
A consultant to multinational companies, government agencies, international organizations, universities, foundations, and foreign governments, Salacuse authored books on international negotiation, law and development, corporate governance and leadership, including Leading Leaders: How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich and Powerful People, selected by The Globe and Mail as one of the ten best business books of 2006. Even in his final months battling cancer, Salacuse continued negotiating life, not allowing his illness to interfere with the writing of his final book The Institution Builder's Toolbox: Strategies for Negotiating Change, published in June 2024.
Salacuse was known for his wisdom, mentorship, scholarship, leadership, art of storytelling, and most of all, his love of family and a good Italian meal. He is survived by his wife of almost 58 years, Donna, his children Bill and Maria, his daughter-in-law Glenora and his son-in-law Michael, his grandchildren Jack, Anna, Miles and Olivia, his nephews Matthew and Adam, their wives Laurie and Stacie, their children Maiya, Violetta and Charlie, his sister-in-law Catherine; and his cousin Marianne Jacobbi.
Salacuse also leaves behind his best friend from third grade in Niagara Falls and best man, John Biasucci, as well as countless colleagues. He was predeceased by his brother Frank and sister Anne. A funeral service will be held on Friday, August 2, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. followed by a celebration of life reception at the St. Cecilia parish in Boston. A burial for family and close friends will be held at Saint Bernard's Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. Remembrances may be made through contributions to The Glioblastoma Foundation.
