E. F. Gay, First Dean of the Business School, Outlines Its Early History--Pays Tribute to Founders of the School

Former Dean E. F. Gay, Hon. '18, who followed former Bishop William Lawrence '71 on the program of the dedication exercises of the Harvard Business School on Saturday told of the early history of the School of which Professor Gay was the first Dean.

Professor Gay spoke of President Eliot's belief from the very outset in the speedy success of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. Mr. Eliot was confident that by the end of the first five-year period, avowedly experimental, for which a modest financial provision had been made, the new School would have so demonstrated its usefulness that its support would be ensured. The newly appointed dean insisted that it would take at least fifteen years to come to anything like maturity, measured by both qualitative and quantitative tests. That cautious prediction has been abundantly fulfilled. By the end of twelve years from the foundation of the Business School in 1908, despite the interruption caused by the war, there had been a steady growth in number of students and in the prestige of the School. But, as Dean Donham remarked when he took charge of the School in 1920, its success, in the terms implied in 1908, had created new and serious problems both of physical and personnel equipment. These problems have been met with remarkable skill and daring energy. The planning vision of Dean Donham and the wonderful generosity of Mr. Baker have combined to raise an edifice surpassing the dreams of those who drew the first lines less than twenty years ago.

Mr. Gay then paid tribute to those who from the beginning had made possible the growth of the School, the first donors, the devoted teachers, and the group of business men who, led by Mr. Higginson, contibuted time and interest to the new enterprise.

In speaking of the first, and in fact the continuing task of such a School--to find what essentials should and could be taught, and then learning how they could be taught, Professor Gay told of the skeptical business man, an admirer of West Point methods, who came to visit the School in its early days. The visitor asked what, apart from a certain amount of technical knowledge, were the qualities required for success in business. The answer was: "Judgment, courage, and that combining and balancing quality which may be called resourcefulness of 'gumption'." When he said triumphantly, "You can't teach those," the response was obvious: "Does West Point training help in making successful army officers?" He said "I see your point." Professional training cannot guarantee the production of Napoleons and Less, but, as in medicine, law, engineering and other professions, so now in business, such education has come to be regarded as fundamental.

Mr. Gay concluded by suggesting that the art and science of management, the nice adjustment of means to end, is not only the chief concern of business, but that, increasingly, business men are coming to look to the professional schools of business for its perfecting. There it can be studied, with the detachment of laboratory specialization--its history and its present manifold forces. And for the business research, as well as for business teaching, to which the Harvard Business School is making such great contributions, there are great possibilities of usefulness which will be developed in the coming years.