Rajaona died Sept. 30, 2016, of pancreatic cancer. 

He was educated at the Lycee Gallieni, in his native Madagascar. He transferred from the University of Michigan to Princeton our junior year. He was a Woodrow Wilson School major and belonged to the Woodrow Wilson Society.  

After Princeton he earned a master’s in international affairs degree at George Washington University, followed by a doctorate in economics at the University of Michigan. 

Rajaona was an economist with the International Monetary Fund and held various governmental positions in Madagascar, including adviser in the Directorate of Planning, director general of planning in the Ministry of Finance and Planning, and director general of the Institute of Madagascar for Techniques of Planning. He was well known as a staunch defender of Malagasy, the national language of Madagascar. 

He lectured and published widely on international matters and development issues and was president of the Madagascar National Academy of Arts, Letters and Sciences; fellow of the African Academy of Sciences; and president of UNESCO’s World Commission on the Ethics of Science and Technology. 

The class extends its sympathy to Rajaona’s wife and to his sons and their families. 

Undergraduate Class of 1966