January 4, 2001
Contact:
Jim Aisner
Harvard Business School
(617) 495-6157
Professor Thomas Kennedy, Harvard Labor Relations Expert, Dies At 88
BOSTON -- Thomas Kennedy, long a renowned professor and authority on labor relations at Harvard Business School as well as a highly respected arbitrator in disputes between unions and management, died on Wednesday, December 27, 2000, at Kendal, a retirement community in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. He was 88 years old.
A member of the HBS faculty from 1956 to 1978, where he was for many years the Albert J. Weatherhead, Jr. Professor of Business Administration, Kennedy established a sterling reputation as a teacher. Besides writing numerous case studies, he recalled in a 1987 interview, "I did my best to keep the classroom such an interesting place that everyone was eager to learn."
To accomplish that, he not only involved his students in challenging discussions but enriched the content and impact of his courses by involving them in role-playing and other simulation exercises. Films and frequent guests from the business world were also a regular part of the syllabus. Differences of opinion were encouraged, he observed; conventional wisdom was not.
In 1971, Kennedy received Harvard Business School's Salgo Award for his "ability to motivate students to dig deeply into cases and develop rigorous analyses of the situations, the capacity to inspire and excite the imaginations of men and women in the classroom, and the commitment to keep teaching materials up-to-date and in tune with current conditions."
"The classroom was a calling for Tom Kennedy," Dean Kim B. Clark commented. "He had a passion for what he did, and he dedicated his life to helping students develop their ideas and make sound judgments based on rigorous thinking. During his more than two decades on our faculty, he played an influential role in an institution that prides itself on the high quality of its instruction. No one who took one of Tom's classes could ever forget him."
In 1988, Harvard Business School honored Kennedy with its highest accolade, the Distinguished Service Award for "extraordinary service that has resulted in a marked increased in the ability of the School to perform its mission" to train leaders.
Kennedy's talents were in great demand both on and off the Business School campus. From 1976 to 1978, for example, he developed an expertise in international labor relations while teaching in an executive program then offered by Harvard Business School in Switzerland. In preparation for that assignment, Kennedy spent six months visiting all the countries of Western Europe, collecting materials, and writing cases. In 1980, the results of those efforts were published in book form - one of five he authored or co-authored during his career - under the title European Labor Relations (Lexington Books). Other volumes included Effective Labor Arbitration (University of Pennsylvania Press), Automation Funds and Displaced Workers (Harvard Business School Research Division), and Problems in Labor Relations (McGraw-Hill).
In addition, Kennedy participated in management programs at corporations such as AT&T, Bethlehem Steel, and Eli Lilly. He was head of the faculty of the Institute for Educational Management, a program that originated at HBS to teach college deans and presidents about the business side of an educational institution. He also taught courses in labor relations in several countries in Central and South America.
After retiring from Harvard Business School at the age of 66, Kennedy became a full-time visiting professor at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. In his final year of teaching there in 1985, students established the Thomas Kennedy Outstanding Teacher Award in his honor.
Maynard Thomas Kennedy was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1912. As a young man he loved walking in the mountains around Altoona, and he enjoyed canoeing on the Juniata River. Later he shared his love of the outdoors with his family, camping and hiking in the Adirondacks and canoeing on the Concord River in Massachusetts.
Kennedy received a bachelor's degree in economics from Swarthmore College in 1934. Two years later, after working for the Society of Friends (the Quakers), he pursued a master's degree in economics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a student of George Taylor, a major figure in the field of labor relations and the first arbitrator for General Motors.
Graduating in 1937 and recently married, Kennedy accepted an appointment at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. His success in that position intensified his interest in an academic career and led him to return to the University of Pennsylvania in 1940 to teach and begin work on a Ph.D., which he earned in 1947. His dissertation, a study of labor relations practices in the U.S. hosiery industry, was published that year by the University of Pennsylvania Press.
After three more years on the Pennsylvania faculty, Kennedy opted for a chance to complement his years of study with real-world experience. In 1950, he became Director of Industrial and Public Relations at the Atlas Chemical Company in Wilmington, Delaware, where, among other duties, he was responsible for negotiating all labor contracts with twelve different unions. As successful as Kennedy was in the workplace, however, in time his absence from the classroom made him realize once and for all that his heart belonged to teaching - a decision that finally brought him to Harvard Business School.
Kennedy is survived by his wife of more than sixty years, the former Ruth Corbin; a daughter, Patricia K. Ascher, of Sausalito, Calif.; a son, Thomas C., of Topeka, Kan.; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Burial will be private. A memorial service will be held in Pennsylvania in the spring.
Donations in Kennedy's memory can be sent to the American Friends Service Committee, c/o Ms. Jeanie Moses, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, Pa., 19102.