HBS Professor Of Technology Dies

Professor Emeritus Richard S. Rosenbloom ’54—who served on the faculty of Harvard Business School for 40 years—passed away in New York City on Oct. 24.

Fellow Emeritus Professor Thomas K. McGraw described Rosenbloom as passionate about technology, saying it was no accident he was the inaugural occupant of the David Sarnoff

Professorship, named for the father of color television. Over his years at the Business School, Rosenbloom taught courses on innovation and the management of technology.

His son Joshua L. Rosenbloom, himself a professor at the University of Kansas, said he once watched his father in class and was awed by his ability to engage the students.

Joshua said his father never stopped teaching, even at home. Discussions at dinner would often include someone running to get an encyclopedia to settle a dispute. He would also frequently point out how customer service and management could be improved. “But it was never direct—it was always in a very gentle, instructional way,” Joshua added.

During a stint as director of research at HBS, Rosenbloom excelled at allocating the School’s research funds, colleagues said.

“He had a very good sense of what kind of project would work. Dick was replaced with four people—that’s what a big job he was doing,” McGraw said.

Professor Joseph L. Bower ’59 noted Rosenbloom’s instinctive ability to carefully consider big decisions. “Sometimes it’s easy when the place is busy to just do things casually, but he would never do that. It was wonderful for HBS that he was there making decisions,” Bower said.

Richard Selig Rosenbloom was born in 1933 in Springfield, Mass. He came to Harvard as an undergraduate, and then chose to stay at the University his entire career.

Emeritus Professor Stephen A. Greyser ’56, who entered Harvard College two years after Rosenbloom, noted that Rosenbloom kept the same phone number from the time of his undergrad days at Lowell House, eventually passing it onto his daughter Rachel, who still lives in Cambridge.

“He was a very devoted member of many different communities—the HBS, Harvard, Cambridge, and Jewish communities,” Greyser said.

During his days working at WHRB as an undergrad, Greyser noticed that Rosenbloom, the student head of the radio station, stood out as a leader even among a college full of them. Later, Rosenbloom continued his involvement as chairman of the WHRB board of trustees. He also served as Chairman of Harvard Hillel.

Above all, however, Rosenbloom will be remembered as a tireless mentor and supporter, Professor Regina E. Herzlinger said. Herzlinger, the first tenured woman at HBS, met fierce opposition when she first attempted to begin teaching. “The dean couldn’t picture a woman teaching; he thought riots would break out,” she said.

But Rosenbloom, the only colleague with whom she discussed the situation, was adamant in his support of her.

“He was incredibly prescient,” she said.

Professor Clayton M. Christensen, too, noted that Rosenbloom had influenced or nurtured today’s most prominent scholars in the field of technology and innovation.

“One of the world’s greatest mentors of the next generation is gone, and that puts the onus on the people of my generation to do what he did for us,” he said.