John Darwin (J. D.) Von Pischke was born on April 11, 1940, in East Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. He studied Liberal Arts, Economics, and Business Economics in the early 1960s. After obtaining his Master of Business Administration at Columbia University in 1964, he joined the Peace Corps and was sent to the College of Business Administration of the Haile Selassie University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to teach basic and managerial economics and banking; he was there between September 1964 and September 1966.

Von Pischke accepted a credit trainee position at the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City in March 1967 and stayed with the company until January 1971. That year, Von Pischke started his Ph.D. at the Adam Smith School of Political Economy at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. For his research project, he lived in Kenya for two and a half years, where he examined a set of farms that operated with and without credit in the Kikuyu highlands. In November 1977, he received his Ph.D. and completed his thesis "The Political Economy of Farm Credit in Kenya".

While undertaking his Ph.D., Von Pischke also served as a consultant at the World Bank Group (WBG). Beginning in February 1972 through November 1974, Von Pischke supported the WBG's agricultural sector, the Development Policy Vice Presidency's (VPD) Development Economics Department, and Asia Regional (ASN) Projects Department. On April 8, 1976, Von Pischke joined the WBG full time as an agricultural credit specialist in the Europe, Middle East and North Africa Regional Projects Department (EMENA). Von Pischke also supported the Economic Development Institute (EDI), the WBG's training arm, in 1976 as senior lecturer for the Agriculture, Rural Development and General Project (EDIAG) courses. He would continue to support EDI as a lecturer throughout his career at the WBG.

In the following years, Von Pischke served in various positions throughout the WBG, primarily focusing on agricultural and rural development, rural finance, debt capacity, and the role of credit in private economy:

• 1978 - 1984: Agricultural Credit Specialist, Agriculture and Rural Development Department (AGR)

• 1979 - 1984: Financial Analyst, Agriculture and Rural Development Department (AGR)

• 1984 - 1987: Senior Operations Officer, East Asia and Pacific Vice Presidency, Industrial Development and Finance Division (AEPID)

• 1987 - 1991: Senior Operations Officer in various units of the Asia Regional Vice Presidency, including Asia Technical Department's Industry, Trade and Finance Division (ASTIF) and Country Department 1, Industry and Energy Operations Division (AS1IE)

• 1991 - 1993: Senior Financial Analyst, South Asia Country Department 1, Industry and Finance Division (SA1CI)

From December 1993 to April 1995, Von Pischke took leave from the WBG while serving as project manager in KPMG Peat Marwick's Policy Economics Group. When he returned to the WBG in 1995 it was in a consultancy role. Over the next15 years, he supported a variety of WBG units, including:

• Operations Evaluation Department (OED; 1995);

• Consultative Group for Assistance to the Poor (CGAP; 1996-1998 and 2006-2010);

• South Asia Region's Social Development Sector (SASSD; 1998-2000);

• Africa Region's Technical Department, Rural Development Division (AFTR2; 2000);

• Benin Resident Mission (AFMBJ; 2000-2003);

• Quality Assurance Group (QAG; 2003-2005);

• World Bank Institute (formerly EDI), Finance andPrivate Sector Development Division (WBIFP; 2005-2006);

• Organization Planning Department (OPD; 2006);

• and South Asia Region's Finance and Private Sector Development Department (SASFP; 2010).

Von Pischke died on December 8, 2020, in Fairfax, Virginia, U.S.A.