Latino think-tank chief Harry Pachon dies

LOS ANGELES -- Harry Pachon, a scholar-activist who helped focus national attention on the needs and traits of a growing Latino population, particularly in politics and education, has died. He was 66.

Pachon, the longtime president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, had been ill for several months and died Friday at Kindred Hospital in Ontario, Calif.

The cause was lung failure, said his son, Marc Pachon.

A Claremont, Calif., resident, Pachon had led the policy institute since 1993, when it operated at Claremont Graduate University as the Tomas Rivera Center. In 2003, it moved to the University of Southern California, where Pachon was a professor of public policy.

Under his leadership the institute expanded and sharpened its research mission, examining key questions at the heart of national debates involving Latinos, including bilingual education, welfare reform, immigration and political engagement.

"Harry pretty much invented the idea of the Latino think-tank," said institute director Roberto Suro, who had founded the rival Pew Hispanic Center in Washington in 2001. "The targeted work he did was very original. He produced a lot of imitators, and I say that as one of them."

The son of Colombian immigrants, Pachon was born June 4, 1945, in Miami but spent much of his youth in Colombia. When he was 16, he returned to the United States and lived with a brother in Montebello, Calif., where he finished high school.

In addition to his son Marc, he is survived by his wife, Barbara; a daughter, Melissa; sons Nicholas and Andrew; and four grandchildren.