Omer Hursit Calika was born in Kayseri, Turkey, in 1918. He studied economics at Istanbul University and worked for the Turkish Ministry of Finance in various posts from 1940 to 1953. From 1953-1954 he was the Alternate Governor for Turkey for the World Bank.

Calika joined the World Bank in 1954, serving as an economist in the Department of Europe, Africa, and Australia. In 1957 he became the division chief for the United Kingdom and Dependencies in the same department, serving until 1963. He then moved to the Africa Department where he was division chief for East and Central Africa during 1964-1965 and assistant to the director of the department from 1966-1968. Calika joined the Education Project Department in 1968 where he served as deputy director until 1972.

As part of the general reorganization of the Bank in November 1972, Calika became the assistant to the director of the Latin American and Caribbean Projects Department. In 1974 he became the chief of the Caribbean Division of the Latin American andCaribbean Projects Department, and in 1977 he became the assistant to the director of the country programs department for Latin America. He retired in 1980.

Omer Hursit Calika died on 15 March 2014.