The Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air will award grants funded by Rangesan Narayanan to honor his late wife, Judi Houston Rangesan. Through their gift, we are able to fund grants to undergraduate student researchers, travel for presentations of scholarly papers or poster presentations, and graduate assistantships. These research grants will facilitate study on the economics of and policies related to water resources, public and private lands, the associated environment, and outdoor recreation.
Biographies of Judi Rangesan and Rangesan Narayanan
Judi was born in Stanton, Texas on September 16, 1950 to Charles and Mildred Houston. She was raised in Big Spring and Stephenville, Texas, where she did her early schooling. She attended Washington Place Elementary School, Big Spring, Runnels Junior High School, and Big Spring and Stephenville High School. In 1971, Judi graduated from Tarleton State University located in Stephenville, Texas, majoring in mathematics and economics.
Judi attended Utah State University from 1972-76 and earned a Ph.D. degree in economics in 1977 with the unique distinction of being the first female student in that program. In 1976, she took a position as Assistant Professor in the Agricultural Economics Department at Texas A&M University in College Station (again with the distinction of being the first ever female faculty member hired by that department.)
She married Rangesan Narayanan in 1977, a fellow student in her Doctoral Program at USU, who then held a faculty position at Utah State University in the Economics department and the Utah Water Research Laboratory. Judi moved back to Logan, Utah, to be with her husband. She took a position as Assistant Professor at Weber State University. She also worked for Merrill Lynch as Account Executive in Ogden.
In 1985, Judi and Rangesan moved to Reno, Nevada. There, she devoted much of her life to being a volunteer. She spent many years with Northern Nevada Hospice Program with St. Mary's Hospital helping terminally ill patients in Reno. For several years, Judi also volunteered with the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program in Nevada, helping with court cases involving foster children. According to Judi, these CASA volunteer assignments were her toughest but most rewarding life experiences.
Judi loved traveling and had deep appreciation for diverse cultures. She travelled extensively in many countries in western and eastern Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa. She loved nature and recreation on public lands and had a passion for improving the environment, which fell in line with her research interests in economics. She was deeply devoted to her family and relatives.
Judi passed away in January of 2020 in Reno.
Rangesan was born in Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, in June 1950, to T.V. Narayanan and Parvatham. His early and secondary education took place in various towns (Chennai, Nagercoil, Papanasam, and Madurai) in the State of Tamil Nadu, India. Later, he attended the Guindy Engineering College, University of Madras in Chennai. He was an honor student and graduated in 1971 with a B.E. in Electrical Engineering.
In 1971, Rangesan came to Utah State University for his graduate program in Electrical Engineering and earned an M.E. degree in 1973. He joined the doctoral program in economics at USU in 1972 and also worked as a research assistant in the Utah Water Research Laboratory (UWRL) while writing his dissertation. In 1976, he earned a Ph.D. in economics. He was given a joint appointment with the Economics Department teaching graduate courses in econometrics and operations research while conducting water related economics research at UWRL. During his time at USU, he served on dozens of graduate committees and mentored many Ph.D. students. In 1977, he married Judith Carol Houston, a classmate from his Economics Ph.D. program, who moved from Texas to Logan to be with Rangesan.
In 1984, he took a position as Associate Professor in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Department of the University of Nevada, Reno. Beginning in 1989, he served as professor and head of that department for ten years. In 2000, he was promoted to the position of Associate Dean of Outreach for the College of Agriculture, Biotechnology and Natural Resources and served in that capacity until 2011.
Rangesan is currently a Senior Fellow with National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy in Washington D.C., a non-profit organization.