Retired Sloan School of Management Professor Stanley M. Jacks died August 2 at the Mid-coast Hospital in Brunswick, ME after a stroke. He was 83.
Professor Jacks, who retired from MIT to Freeport, ME in 1980, was a longtime resident of Southborough, MA. Born in Boston on September 24, 1916, the Boston Latin School graduate received the BA magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1943. He served on the War Labor Board from 1943-46, while attending Northeastern University Law School, graduating in 1946. He earned an MA in economics from Harvard in 1950.
He was an instructor in economics at MIT from 1946-50 and a professor of labor/management relations and labor law at Simmons College from1950-58. He joined the Sloan School faculty as an associate professor in 1959 and retired as a full professor. He was editor of "Issues in Labor Policy" for MIT Press.
Professor Jacks was involved in many aspects of the curriculum at the Sloan School, offering popular courses in the American legal system, labor law and policy, and arbitration and mediation to undergraduates, graduate students and members of the Sloan Fellows and Senior Executive programs at Sloan.
He also was involved in early efforts at MIT to promote the use of alternative dispute resolution techniques to resolve both labor and commercial disputes. He pioneered the introduction of law-related courses to undergraduates at MIT who were interested in the legal training as an adjunct to their undergraduate work. He was an active arbitrator and mediator, serving in numerous collective bargaining and grievance matters throughout New England.
Professor Jacks was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Massachusetts Bar Association, the American Arbitration Association, the US Mediation and Conciliation Service, the National Academy of Arbitrators and the American Economic Association. Upon retirement, he devoted himself to the founding of the Casco Bay YMCA.
He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Barbara (Edwards) of Freeport; two daughters, Jane Hudson of Jamaica Plain, and Alyson of San Francisco; two sons, Ethan of Weston (SB 1976 in political science, SM 1977 in management), and Tyler of Newton, a professor at the MIT Center for Cancer Research; and five grandchildren.
A celebration of his life was held at the Casco Bay YMCA in Freeport on August 13. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Casco Bay YMCA.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on August 23, 2000.
