Edward H. Bowman, an alumnus and former professor at the Sloan School of Management, died on October 7 after complications arising from cardiac surgery in July.
Professor Bowman served on the faculty of MIT as a professor of management first from 1952-66 and 1969-75. He again returned to Sloan a few years later, becoming the only professor at MIT that has been appointed full professor three times in his career.
During his time at Sloan, Professor Bowman was director of the School's doctoral program, and chairman of both the operations management faculty and the School's policy faculty. In addition, he was co-writer of two pioneering books, Analysis of Industrial Operations (1959) and Analysis for Production and Operations Management (1961).
Professor Bowman also served as dean of the Ohio State University College of Administrative Science from 1974-79, and comptroller and senior research associate in administrative science at Yale University from 1966-69. He then joined the faculty of the Wharton School as professor of corporate management. At Wharton, he was director of the Reginald H. Jones Center for Management Policy, Strategy and Organization and also acting deputy dean of academic affairs.
Professor Bowman's corporate positions included assistant to the president at Honeywell Computer Division, chairman of the Executive and Finance Board Committees at Dictaphone, and budget analyst at General Motors and Corning Glass Works.
After receiving the SB from Sloan in 1947, he earned the MBA from the Wharton School in 1949 and the PhD from Ohio State University in 1954. His research areas included managerial decision making, corporate strategy, corporate social responsibility and real options theory. The last project Professor Bowman worked on analyzed the historical perspective on real options theory and corporate restructuring, strategy and governance.
A memorial service in Professor Bowman's honor will be held on November 6 from 4-6pm at the University of Pennsylvania. Donations in his memory may be made to the American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102 or the Salvation Army, Eastern USA Territory, Eastern Pennsylvania & Delaware Division, 701 North Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19123.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 28, 1998.
