Stories
Stories
John McArthur
Topics: Education-Business EducationEducation-TeachingLeadership-Leading ChangeInformation-Information PublishingSocial Enterprise-General
John McArthur
Topics: Education-Business EducationEducation-TeachingLeadership-Leading ChangeInformation-Information PublishingSocial Enterprise-General
John McArthur
above: photo by Bill Gallery
John H. McArthur, a member of the Harvard Business School community for more than six decades—as a student (MBA 1959, DBA 1963), as a faculty member (beginning in 1962), as Dean (from 1980 to 1995), and as Dean and George F. Baker Professor of Administration, Emeritus—died on August 20, 2019, outside Boston.
His energy and leadership kept HBS at the forefront of business education and laid a foundation of intellectual growth and development on which the School continues to build today. His contributions extended far beyond HBS, enhancing the greater Boston region as well as organizations and institutions around the globe, including in his home country of Canada.
McArthur’s association with HBS began in 1957 when he arrived on campus from Vancouver. His standout performance in the MBA Program led to a scholarship in the School’s Doctoral Program, launching his remarkable career as a scholar, teacher, and administrator and culminating with his appointment as the School’s seventh Dean.
McArthur’s vision, passion, and unparalleled gift for building consensus transformed the School. “John felt strongly the responsibility he carried as leader of HBS,” said Dean Nitin Nohria. “He cared deeply about every member of the HBS community and believed in the School’s ability to transform lives. By encouraging us all to dream big dreams—in effect, spurring our intellectual ambition—he set the School on a remarkable trajectory.”
McArthur is credited with building the faculty through the recruitment and promotion of outstanding faculty members, strengthening research, enhancing Executive Education, and launching important initiatives in ethics and social enterprise. He also oversaw a major campus master planning and renewal effort and restructured the School’s publishing arm to expand the reach and impact of the School and its thought leadership throughout the world.
McArthur was easy to spot on campus, often clad in a blue short-sleeved shirt. He had a genuine interest in others and cultivated warm relationships with scores of individuals from all walks of life. He generously thanked people for their efforts on behalf of the School, sending handwritten notes in distinctive longhand. McArthur also was there for members of the HBS community in good and bad times. He often appeared unannounced in hospital rooms and at family celebrations of the faculty and staff. One employee who was seriously injured in a car accident was astonished to receive a visit from McArthur in the hospital even before his family could get there.
“While part of this was about managing an institution, it equally was about John’s humanity and fundamental decency,” said Executive Dean for Administration Angela Crispi (MBA 1990), a mentee and close friend. “John had a big heart. He was a warm, kind, and generous man who made friends easily, and was intensely loyal to them. It is this quality—above all others—that has endeared him to so many.”
Among the many who admired and respected McArthur were legions of HBS alumni. Joe O’Donnell (MBA 1971) noted, “Early in my career John took a chance and hired me, and we became lifelong friends—our families were literally intertwined. I’ve since had the privilege of serving in many roles at Harvard, and I’ve come to appreciate even more his quiet but important leadership. John was an incredibly impressive person who was never interested in impressing people.”
The following pages are filled with similar personal remembrances of McArthur’s impact.
It was September 1986, the close of my first week at HBS, and boy was I depressed. I had just gotten through the first several sessions of the “quant trifecta” we threw at students in the fall term (Finance, Control, and Managerial Economics), and I was utterly, hopelessly lost.
McArthur grew up in the suburbs of Vancouver, where he would go on to attend the University of British Columbia (courtesy Office of John McArthur)
I remember sitting on a bench in front of Baker Library, pondering my dim future, when a big bear of a man sat down next to me. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw that it was the Dean! He leaned over and said, “You look pretty down in the mouth. What’s wrong?” I thought for a moment about how to respond, and then I decided, what the hell, I’m not long for this place anyway, and so I told him I was pretty certain that I was an admissions mistake, and that I wasn’t going to be able to cut it at HBS, what with all of the emphasis on quant. He said, “Well, I’ve been here a long time, and one thing I know for sure is that we don’t make admissions mistakes. There’s a reason that we selected you to be part of the class, and if it’s not clear now, it will be soon.” He then added, “Besides, you couldn’t possibly feel more out of place here than I felt when I first arrived.” He went on to tell me that when he first came to the School from western Canada he showed up on his first day in a pink, short-sleeved shirt. This was the era of “the IBM man” (yes, all men at the School then), and everyone else was dressed in the uniform of the day: white shirt, skinny black tie, dark suit. “And I found my way—you will too.”
Of course, he was right. I soldiered through the first term, and then in the winter term we broke the seal on our first OB class. I remember the first time an I-banker was laying out an action plan, and when the professor asked him why he thought the employees would follow it, he said, “Well, I’ll just tell them to!” Having managed a workforce of about 50 people before coming to HBS, I shot my hand up in the air, and we proceeded to have at it, as to how you motivate people to follow a new course of action.
I now teach at HBS, and I have never forgotten John’s kindness to me. In fact, I am so glad that I had the opportunity to remind him of his gesture several years ago, and to thank him again. I try to remember his example and to look out for students who might be feeling like a misfit here. Because our admissions team doesn’t make mistakes! It’s important for you to know that.
—Derek van Bever (MBA 1988),
Senior Lecturer and Director, The Forum for Growth & Innovation
I was an incoming MBA student at HBS in 1984 from the Philippines. It was my first time living abroad, and for the first few months after my arrival in Cambridge, I felt quite lonely for home. One day, I received a formal invitation to attend a dinner hosted by Dean McArthur at his residence on campus. The dinner consisted of a small gathering of about five foreign students including myself and the Dean. The dinner made me more at ease about HBS, but more importantly, made me feel like I mattered because someone important like the Dean himself had remembered to invite me. It was a big step toward integrating me into the HBS community. I will be thankful to him for his kind gesture for as long as I live.
—Ricardo Nicanor Jacinto (MBA 1986)
McArthur excelled at identifying promising generators of ideas and placing large institutional bets on them, leading colleagues to dub him “an intellectual venture capitalist.” (courtesy Office of John McArthur)
I met Dean McArthur only once, but he made an indelible memory. I had recently graduated from the MBA Program and, in addition to my day job, began writing for the Brief Case series for Harvard Business Publishing. One of my first assignments was to rewrite a case that Dean McArthur had written early in his career.
I was surprised when the editor informed me that the Dean had asked to meet me. No other faculty member—before or since—has made time for this, and I have now written over a dozen publications for HBP.
Dean McArthur was keen to see that I would do justice to his work, and he specifically wanted to give me more context on the original case and the protagonist. The key lesson in the original case was on the sorts of accounting practices that could hide a company’s problem until it was too late. What he wanted to emphasize to me was that this had not been a case of fraud, but an honest error by the company. I am paraphrasing here, of course, but the Dean painted quite a vivid picture for me:
“I had shown [the protagonist] the case, and obviously it did not make them look very good at all. There I was, a young HBS professor who had invested all this time writing one of my first cases, and I was nervous that they would refuse to sign off on it. I remember [the protagonist] standing up and walking away to stare at the wall for what seemed like a long time. Finally, when he turned back to me, he had tears in his eyes. He said, ‘I want you to publish this exactly as you’ve written it. We made an honest mistake, we need to own up to it, and we want others to learn from it.’ ”
This very small interaction with Dean McArthur spoke volumes about his character and his values. His entire purpose for meeting with me was to share this experience and to emphasize the integrity, goodwill, and leadership of the protagonist. Clearly, the experience of working with a protagonist he respected was important—even all these decades later—and he wanted to make sure that I would honor this memory and maintain the same respect in my rewrite.
I count myself lucky enough not only to have experienced his impact at HBS, but experienced it in a very personal and meaningful way.
—Sunru Yong (MBA 2007)
courtesy Office of John McArthur
Dean McArthur taught me what real friendship looks like in action. A few years after he retired as Dean we hosted a breakfast for him in New York City. It was probably 1997. He told a story about supporting a friend in need by traveling via car nearly eight hours on a Friday night to see him. The story redefined my ideas about friendship and service. I am forever grateful.
—Nique Fajors (MBA 1993)
I arrived at HBS in 1969, one year after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Frankly, I arrived with doubts regarding whether, as an African American, I would be welcomed or merely tolerated once I enrolled.
Although there were clearly a few tensions along the way, it was a pivot in my relationship with John McArthur, a finance professor at the time, that caused me to feel—to this day—very positive about my entire HBS experience.
As one example, Professor McArthur assumed a possibly unofficial role as a mediator in a dispute between the more than 50 African American HBS students and those running the Harbus when an article appeared in the paper that the Black students considered highly offensive. A resolution of the dispute was made possible largely by the role of Professor McArthur, who convened representatives from both sides, listened carefully, and helped broker a mutually satisfactory solution.
That moment meant more to me than the resolution of a dispute: It was symbolic of a conclusion I reached, probably shared by most Black students at the time, that although there will always be those who resent or oppose upward mobility for Black students, HBS as an institution for the first time made me feel welcomed instead of tolerated.
It was the thoughtful, energetic gravitas and caring of John McArthur who, from that moment forward, permanently embedded in my head the authenticity and credibility of HBS as a positive force for the upward mobility of Blacks in America. I believe the full story of the cumulative, outsized impact that HBS has had on Black upward mobility since 1969 has yet to be widely appreciated. John McArthur continued his impact as Dean and beyond.
—John Anthony Hall (MBA 1971)
Undoubtedly there will be significant memories conveyed by the many influential individuals whom John touched during his life, but in 1967 there were five first-year MBA students who came directly from their undergraduate experiences who were privileged to be taught Finance by young Professor McArthur. And all five of us could have testified then to the brilliant future the Professor would enjoy, based upon his kindness and the human touch he extended to us “lost” young first-semester HBSers. You see, he advised us several times over a pint of beer at Charlie’s Kitchen that we would all be OK and to just hang in there with him and the School.
Not only was he right, but he imparted his goodwill in a way we knew was a precursor to the much bigger shoes he was destined to fill. He cared and we knew it. Therein is the definition of his life.
—Ron Benjamin (MBA 1969)
John McArthur was a director of the company I co-founded, the AES Corporation, from 1997 to 2008. He was a fantastic director, always pushing us to excel but not afraid to express a dissenting opinion when he thought we were making a wrong turn. After some stunning growth in the 90s, we went through a rough patch in 2001-2002, and I’m not sure we could have made it to the other side without John. Even though some of our problems stemmed from things John warned us against, he rolled up his sleeves and did everything he could to help us survive and be a better company thereafter. We could always rely on his integrity and moral compass, and all of us benefited greatly from having John's thoughtful counsel available whenever it was needed.
I feel enormously grateful to have worked closely with John and his positive influence will always be with me. Rest in peace, John. You left an indelibly wonderful imprint on the world.
—Roger Sant (MBA 1960)
My father, Professor E. Raymond Corey, served under Dean McArthur and greatly admired him. Here’s a passage from my father’s memoirs:
“John McArthur was the fifth dean under whom I worked, and in my view, the best of the five. John had a style of his own, even as a young faculty member. When Charlotte and I were married and John was an assistant professor working on a research project in France, we received a wedding present from him and his wife, Natty. As dean, he frequently sent out personal notes of thanks or congratulations for any deed or accomplishment, large or small. As his Director of Research, I was on the receiving end of many such missives. He often rewarded service to the School with gifts; at the end of my time in the Research assignment, for example, he gave me a ship’s bell clock and barometer. At Christmas, every faculty member received presents: one year a crystal bowl, other years baskets of fruit and preserves.
One time Charlotte and I were invited to a dinner at the Faculty Club, that would follow a meeting of the HBS Visiting Committee at which I was to make a presentation. When we accepted, he sent Charlotte a large bouquet of flowers and, on the evening of the dinner, he sent a limousine to our house to bring her to the School. But most touching of all: when my mother died, John came to her funeral service at the Village Church. Following the service, he gave me a big hug; it was like being picked up by a bear! (John spent a couple of years after graduating from the University of British Columbia as a professional football player in Canada.) No wonder I loved the man and would do anything for him!”
By the way, the ship’s clock and barometer are now proudly above my desk at Harvard Medical School.
—David P. Corey, PhD, Bertarelli Professor of Translational Medical Science, Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School
I was very fortunate to be a recipient of the LeBaron-McArthur-Ellis fellowship as an MBA student. It was with a heavy heart that I heard about the passing of John. I remember fondly the opportunities I had to meet and spend time with John, Dean, and Charley during the fellowship dinners. My brief chat with John at dinner left me inspired and determined want to help provide education for others. John’s example inspired me. I know he will be greatly missed.
—Emmanuel Forlemu (MBA 2018)
I had the privilege of being the GAC rep for section C and had the opportunity to interact with Dean McArthur. I was an active duty Captain in the US Army during my matriculation. My wife was also in the Army and finished her degree at Tufts a year before I graduated and moved to West Point for an assignment with our kids.
I commuted to West Point on weekends to be with my family. During the week. I lived in the dorms on the HBS campus. On two occasions when my wife visited Boston, Dean MacArthur allowed my wife and I to stay in the Dean’s house on campus. It was an extraordinary gesture that we recall each time we visit campus and walk by the house.
It was a privilege to know him and our lives have been touched by his intellect, commitment to diversity and generosity.
—Herman Bulls (MBA 1985)
John made the special consolidated, 18-month MBA for section J of Class of 1972 outstanding as my first-year finance professor. We became friends for life and HBS gave me a chance to leave US State Department while in South Vietnam and join the class of 1972 in January 1971 while on a sabbatical. I never looked back and resigned from Government during my first year with lot of guidance from John.
—John Hoey (MBA 1972)
Dean McArthur taught me what real friendship looks like in action. A few years after he retired as Dean, we hosted a breakfast for him in New York City. It was probably 1997. He told a story about supporting a friend in need by travelling via car nearly eight hours on a Friday night to see him. The story redefined my ideas about friendship and service. I am forever grateful.
—Nique Fajors (MBA 1993)
John was my Dean and an unforgettable role model throughout both my professional and personal life.
I met him first at the Dean’s house on campus for a lunch with the Italian MBA student body. I admired his humbleness, personal touch, level of energy, and true interest in getting to know each of us. John loved Italy deeply and had many amazing stories to tell related to his Italian business and leisure experiences.
Last time I met him was just a few years ago by chance at the airport of Rome, when John and Natty were on their way to Sardinia to visit an old (mutual) Italian friend. Surprisingly, he seemed to remember me and was in great shape and very excited to visit our mutual friend in Sardinia. We had a splendid, unforgettable catch up.
In the last 25 years, I had consistently reported great memories of Dean McArthur to my wife and my kids. I will never forget my favorite Dean John.
—Paolo Amato (MBA 1994)
My most memorable encounter with Dean McArthur occurred during the late spring of my second year in the MBA program. My very last academic act of the program was to turn in a research paper by the inevitable 5pm deadline. Of course, I had edited and printed the paper right up to the last moment. Then I phoned the professor's office to tell them I was coming. The administrative assistant promised to keep the office open until I got there.
I fought Cambridge traffic and ended up double parking my car. I ran through campus at full sprint to get there in time. I came tearing around a corner and barreled square into the chest of Dean McArthur. He wasn't fazed a bit. He caught me in his arms, righted me, and sent me on my way. He called after me and cheerfully wished me a good grade on the paper. A week later, he smiled and shook my hand as I received my diploma. I still cherish the photo I have of that handshake.
—John Roush (MBA 1992)
Dean McArthur was absolutely pivotal in my career steps and choices, as he became a mentor to me after HBS. He encouraged me to continue to do work in the media (when I didn’t know anything about it and was questioning if I could do it), and my first book, Mom Hacks, launched this February and became a national bestseller, and I now appear weekly on CNN—and it was all because of his encouragement.
I’m so, so sorry to have heard about his passing. His life was a gift to everyone who had the good fortune to cross paths with him.
—Darria Long (MBA 2005)
John was my esteemed teacher and advisor both in the first and second year of the MBA Program. After graduation we became friends with many encounters, conversations, and correspondence over the years.
In conjunction with “the fall of the Berlin Wall” in 1989, I received his reflections in a nine-page-handwritten letter. I will keep his sharp yet pragmatic thinking, his initiative, and his personal warmth in my heart!
—Wilfried Boysen (MBA 1971)
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