Deane Waldo Malott, 1898-1996

Deane Waldo Malott was born in Abilene, Kansas on July 10, 1898. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas in 1921 and an MBA from HBS in 1923. Malott served as an Assistant Professor of Public Utility Management at HBS from 1923-1929. In 1929, he left HBS to spend four years as Vice President of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company but returned to HBS in 1933 as Associate Professor of Business. In 1939, Malott left HBS and developed a distinguished career in academic administration. He served as Chancellor of the University of Kansas from 1939 to 1951 and in 1951, he was named President of Cornell University, a post that he held until retirement in 1963. Malott was a tireless fundraiser and promoter of a variety of academic and non-academic causes. His interests were broad, and included curriculum development, the securing of partnerships between business and academia, and the defense of intellectual freedom.

Malott served on the executive boards of numerous companies including General Mills, the B.F. Goodrich Company, Owens-Corning Fiberglass, Lane Bryant, Inc., and Pitney-Bowes, Inc. He was also a member of the Business Advisory Council of the United States Department of Commerce and served on a number of federal commissions and boards under Presidents Truman, Eisenhower and Johnson.

While at HBS, Malott co-wrote or edited a number of texts in agriculture, finance and public utilities management, including Agricultural Industries (with Boyce F. Martin in 1939), Grain and Its Marketing: A Comprehensive Course of Study (edited in 1926), Introduction to Corporate Finance (with John C. Baker in 1936), and Problems in Public Utility Management (with Philip Cabot in 1930). In 1992, he published a short memoir of his youth, On Growing Up in Abilene, Kansas, 1898-1916. Malott maintained strong lifelong ties with HBS and his fellow alumni. He served as secretary of the Class of 1923 and participated in the organization of its 55th reunion in 1978. Malott died on September 11, 1996 in Ithaca, New York.

From the guide to the Deane Waldo Malott papers, 1923-1995, (Baker Library, Harvard Business School)