A Tribute to Lyman W. Porter Celebrating his Life and Contributions 1930 2015 Friday, September 25, 2015 Merage School Auditorium on the UCI Campus
A Tribute to Lyman W. Porter Welcoming Remarks from Eric Spangenberg Dean, UCI Paul Merage School of Business James McGaugh Professor, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, UC Irvine Devoted colleague at UCI, friend and neighbor William R. Schonfeld Dean of the UCI School of Social Sciences (1982-2002), and now Research Professor of Political Science. Served with Lyman Porter as a fellow Dean, as well as in a number of other organizational roles. Jone Pearce Former Interim Dean (2002-2004) and Dean s Professor of Organization and Management, UCI Paul Merage School of Business As a professor at UCI since 1979, recruited by Lyman Porter Leon LaPorte General. U.S. Army (Ret) Student of Lyman Porter 1975-1977 Milton D. Hakel President, SIOP Foundation; Ohio Eminent Scholar and Professor Emeritus, Bowling Green State University Colleagues since 1965, serving the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Summit Group. Ed Lawler Distinguished Research Professor of Business and Director, Center for Effective Organizations, Marshall School of Business at USC Student of Lyman Porter 1960-1964 Richard T. Mowday Gerald B. Bashaw Professor of Management Emeritus, University of Oregon Student at the UCI Graduate School of Administration 1970-75, MS and PhD Charles Leisure Grandson Bill Porter Son The Porter family would like to thank you for attending. Please join them in the courtyard for refreshments and a taste of Lyman and Meredith Porter s favorite musical era courtesy of the Jerry Mandel Swingin the Standards Jazz Band with special guest Founding UCI Faculty Member James McGaugh
Lyman W. Porter, PhD 1930 2015 Dr. Lyman W. Porter, the former dean of the University of California, Irvine, Graduate School of Management (now known as The Paul Merage School of Business) died on July 2, 2015 in Newport Beach, California. He was 85. Lyman William Porter was born in 1930 in Lafayette, Indiana. He was the youngest of three sons born to Charles Lyman Porter, a professor of biology at Purdue University, and his wife Mary Allen. Dr. Porter wrote in a personal history that he was a product of a middle-class, middle west upbringing., and continued that his, roots and basic character formation were anchored in my first eighteen years growing up in a college town in Indiana. Dr. Porter attended Northwestern University, graduating in 1952. He continued his education at Yale University, where he earned a Ph.D. in psychology in 1956. In the same year he joined the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, where he rose to full professor of industrial psychology. In 1958 he married Meredith Anne, who survives him along with their children, Anne Leisure (Marr N. Leisure) grandsons, John Lyman Leisure and Charles Porter Leisure and William Lyman Porter (Michelle) granddaughter, Sarah Elizabeth Porter and William Lyman Porter, Jr. Lyman and Meredith moved to Newport Beach, California in 1967 where they began a new chapter in their lives with his appointment as the assistant dean of what was then the Graduate School of Administration at the University of California, Irvine. As assistant dean he was instrumental in starting the Ph.D. program in the GSA. He served with great distinction as dean of the school from 1972 to 1983. His tenure was marked by the creation of strong connections between the school and the business community, primarily through the highly successful Corporate Partners Program and the development of the MBA program. Long after becoming emeritus in 1992, he continued to teach, research and serve his campus. The Dr. Lyman W. Porter Colloquium Room in the Paul Merage School of Business building was named in his honor this year.
Lyman William Porter was a scholar of great distinction and influence in his field of Organizational Behavioral Psychology. He was one of the primary founders of the study of organizational behavior. His texts are considered classics in the field. He taught and mentored generations of academic and industrial leaders, and played a major role in ensuring that organizational behavior would become an important component of modern business education. His scholarship has been recognized in honors and awards too numerous to count, most prominently: the Catell Award (American Psychological Association, 1969), Scholarly Contributions Award (Academy of Management, 1983), Distinguished Faculty Research Award (University of California, Irvine, 1989), Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (American Psychological Association, 1989), an Honorary Doctor of Law degree (De Paul University) and an Alumni Merit Award (Northwestern University, 1994). He was an important builder of institutions. In addition to leading the creation of the MBA program at the UCI Graduate School of Management, he achieved AACSB accreditation, a challenging task for such a small, new school. He was the first to build the afore mentioned strong community relationships and worked tirelessly to ensure the school admitted the most outstanding students and hired the most promising faculty members, establishing the school s leading global academic reputation that remains today. After his formal retirement he served as Associate Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, on committees for the National Academy of Sciences and led the effort to reform and internationalize business school curricula for the AACSB. He also led numerous academic associations, among the most noteworthy: The Academy of Management and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. He was a beloved educator, not only to his own students who have gone on to become leaders of their scholarly fields and universities, but of his junior colleagues as well. He nurtured many careers and lives with his wisdom and generosity. As well as being remembered for his distinguished scholarly contributions, Lyman William Porter will be remembered with great fondness and love by his family for the wonderful husband, father and grandfather that he was during his lifetime.
The Lyman W. Porter Colloquia Room In January 2015, the UCI Paul Merage School of Business opened doors to a 78,000 square foot addition to its campus directly across from its existing office and classroom building. Having grown from a graduate management school to one serving both undergraduate and graduate students, the Merage School s new building added much needed classroom, study, meeting and office space. One of the true gems of the new building is a 40-seat, multi-functional teaching and meeting room that sits at the corner of the top floor, with an attached terrace overlooking the Orange County skyline, from John Wayne Airport to the mountains in the distance. It became a labor of love for US Army General (Retired) Leon LaPorte to raise funds among friends, alumni and colleagues to name that room in Lyman Porter s honor, and we all especially appreciate the fact that Port lived to see his room officially named at the building s opening celebrations. Already, that room has hosted a multitude of colloquia where the nation s and the world s best scholars are invited to discuss their academic research. Executive Education certificate programs for the extended business community are often taught there, and the room has also served as a welcoming reception area for groups as varied as the Chancellor s CEO Roundtable, the Dean s Leadership Circle and newly admitted Merage School students excited to meet and network with their classmates. Memorial donations for the Lyman W. Porter Colloquia Room may be made online at merage.uci.edu/go/porter or a check payable to the UCI Foundation may be mailed to, UCI Foundation, Attn: Porter Fund, 100 Theory, Suite 250, Irvine, CA 92617.