Harvard Business School

In a November 1922 letter, Harvard's President Emeritus Charles W. Eliot asked Dean Donham what function the School's three "assistant deans" performed.  It was an administrative title, Eliot confessed, with which he was not familiar.

"Our three assistant deans," Donham replied, "Mr. David, Mr. Biddle, and Mr. Borden, are engaged like myself in a combination of functions—partly teaching (Professor David teaches Retail Store Management, and Mr. Biddle Investment Banking); partly internal administration (the entire coordinating work of building up student relations is handled through this office); partly financial (Mr. David and Mr. Biddle as well as I myself have devoted a good deal of time to financing the case system); partly making industrial contacts (all of us devote much time to this and Mr. Borden is now at the General Electric Company for a year, working on the gathering of teaching material, namely, cases, under an agreement with them and at their expense); [and] partly placement."

Donham, a skilled manager of people, also used the assistant dean ranks to build a cohesive cadre of young leaders who were committed to the School's mission.  One of the most outstanding of these young leaders was Clinton P. Biddle, a member of the MBA Class of 1920, in whom Donham placed enormous trust, and whom he hoped would succeed him in the deanship.