Scope and Contents
This collection consists of papers documenting the professional activity of Gilbert R. Whitaker, Jr. from the 1970’s through 2004, primarily at the University of Michigan and Rice University. Included are personal day books, correspondence, newsclippings, speeches, and photographs.
Biographical / Historical
Dr. Gilbert R. Whitaker, Jr. earned a B.A. in economics from Rice University in 1953. From 1953 to 1956 he was an ensign in the U.S. Navy, serving as a gunnery officer on a destroyer. He then began graduate study in economics, first at Southern Methodist University and then at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he earned an M.S. in 1958 and a Ph.D. in 1961. His major in economics was theory, and his minor, statistics. In 1959-60 he had a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.
Dr. Whitaker’s academic appointments were, chronologically, at Northwestern University (1960-1966); Washington University, St. Louis (1966-1976); Texas Christian University, Fort Worth (1976-1978); University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1979-1997); and Rice University (1997-2005). At Texas Christian he was dean of the M. J. Neeley School of Business, and he joined the University of Michigan as dean of the School of Business Administration. There he rose to become provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. After retiring from the University of Michigan, he became dean and H. Joe Nelson III Professor of Business Economics at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University.
In addition to his work at these universities, Dr. Whitaker served in a variety of other educational organizations, including the University of West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica (external examiner, 1975-1978), the University of Wisconsin (system advisor, 1986 and 1995), the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (1977-1991), Consortium for Graduate Study in Management (director, 1971-1976; council of deans, 1985-1990), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (chairman, visitation team for graduate program of the Graduate School of Business, 1987), Yale University (chair, accreditation review team for the Yale School of Management, 1998), Case Western Reserve University (chairman of the review committee for the Weatherhead School of Management, 1999), JSTOR (board of trustees and secretary/treasurer, 1995-2002), The Washington Campus Program (director, 1979-1988; vice chairman, 1983-1985; chairman, 1985-1988), Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (1993-2004), Forum for the Future of Higher Education (board of directors, 1997-2004), and The Learning Alliance (consultant, 2003-2004).
Dr. Whitaker’s experience included contributions to the following private corporations: Handleman Company (Director, 1989-1999), Lincoln National Corporation (Director, 1986-2002), Structural Dynamics Research Corporation (Director, 1986-2001), Johnson Controls, Inc. (Director, 1986-2001), and Westlake Chemical (Director, 2004-2007).
