Percy S. Brown

Last updated

Percy Shiras Brown (October 15, 1883 – 1973) was an American chemical, industrial and consulting management engineer, educator, and business executive, who served as president of the Taylor Society in 1924-1925, [1] and as president of the Society for Advancement of Management in 1942-44. [2]

Chemical engineer professional in the field of chemical engineering

In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is a professional, who is equipped with the knowledge of chemical engineering, works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment. In general, a chemical engineer is one who applies and uses principles of chemical engineering in any of its various practical applications; these often include 1) design, manufacture, and operation of plants and machinery in industrial chemical and related processes ; 2) development of new or adapted substances for products ranging from foods and beverages to cosmetics to cleaners to pharmaceutical ingredients, among many other products ; and 3) development of new technologies such as fuel cells, hydrogen power and nanotechnology, as well as working in fields wholly or partially derived from chemical engineering such as materials science, polymer engineering, and biomedical engineering.

Taylor Society

The Taylor Society was an American society for the discussion and promotion of scientific management, named after Frederick Winslow Taylor.

Contents

Biography

Youth and early career

Brown was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1883, son G. Carleton Brown and Katherine (French) Brown. [3] Brown was brother to Carlton F. Brown, later General Manager, and to Harold McD. Brown, later Publicity Manager of the Corona Typewriter Company, in 1917, when Brown would join his two brothers in that firm. [4]

Elizabeth, New Jersey City in Union County, New Jersey, U.S.

Elizabeth is both the largest city and the county seat of Union County, in New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth most populous city, behind Paterson. The population increased by 4,401 (3.7%) from the 120,568 counted in the 2000 Census, which had in turn increased by 10,566 (+9.6%) from the 110,002 counted in the 1990 Census. For 2017, the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 130,215, an increase of 4.2% from the 2010 enumeration, ranking the city the 212th-most-populous in the nation.

Brown attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and studied chemical engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. [5] After his graduation, in 1906, [6] he started as chemist at the Western Electric Co. in New York. [7] Next he was General Superintendent of a prominent manufacturing company. In 1912 he returned to the Western Electric Co. where he was employed in research and efficiency work for five years. [4]

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute private research university in Troy, New York, United States

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a private research university and space-grant institution in Troy, New York, with additional campuses in Hartford and Groton, Connecticut.

Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that served as the primary supplier to AT&T from 1881 to 1996, and to the local Bell Operating Companies until 1984. The company was responsible for many technological innovations and seminal developments in industrial management. It also served as the purchasing agent for the member companies of the Bell System.

In 1917 Brown joined the Corona Typewriter Company in Groton, New York, [4] where he was Works Manager T. S. in 1922 [8] and Vice President in 1924. In the year 1924-25 he also served as president of the Taylor Society as successor Richard A. Feiss, and the next year he was succeeded by Morris Llewellyn Cooke.

Groton (village), New York Village in New York, United States

Groton is a village in Tompkins County, New York, United States. The population was 2,363 at the 2010 census.

Richard Albert Feiss was an American lawyer, business manager, and president of Joseph & Feiss Co. in Cleveland, Ohio. He is known as 6th president of the Taylor Society from 1922 to 1924.

Morris Llewellyn Cooke American engineer

Morris Llewellyn Cooke was an American engineer, best known for his work on Scientific Management and Rural Electrification.

Further career and other activities

In the year 1926–27 he was sales manager for the Portable Adding Machine Co. In 1927 he was appointed American deputy director at the International Management Institute, in Geneva, Switzerland. [9] [3] In May 1928 he resigned to protest against the manipulations in the institute by its first director, Paul Dévinat. [10]

Back in the States in 1929 he became associated with Edward A. Filene [11] in 1929–30, and 1933–37. In between, from 1930 to 1933 in Chicago he was partner at James O. McKinsey & Co., now McKinsey & Company. [3] In the late 1930s Brown also became board member of the Institute for Propaganda Analysis. [12]

McKinsey & Company is an American worldwide management consulting firm. It conducts qualitative and quantitative analysis to evaluate management decisions across public and private sectors. Widely considered the most prestigious management consultancy, McKinsey's clientele includes 80% of the world's largest corporations, and an extensive list of governments and non-profit organisations. More current and former Fortune 500 C.E.O.s are alumni of McKinsey than of any other company, a list including Google C.E.O. Sundar Pichai, Morgan Stanley C.E.O. James P. Gorman, and many more. McKinsey publishes the McKinsey Quarterly since 1964, funds the McKinsey Global Institute research organization, publishes reports on management topics, and has authored many influential books on management. Its practices of confidentiality, influence on business practices, and corporate culture have experienced a polarizing reception.

The Institute for Propaganda Analysis (IPA) was a U.S.-based organization operating from 1937 to 1942, composed of social scientists, opinion leaders, historians, educators, and journalists. Created by Kirtley Mather, Edward A. Filene, and Clyde R. Miller, because of the general concern that increased amounts of propaganda were decreasing the public's ability to think critically. The IPA's purpose was to spark rational thinking and provide a guide to help the public have well-informed discussions on current issues. "To teach people how to think rather than what to think." The IPA focused on domestic propaganda issues that might become possible threats to the democratic ways of life.

Later in the 1940s he served as executive director Filene Goodwill Fund. [13] Also from 1942 to 1944 he served as president of the Society for Advancement of Management as successor of James Keith Louden, and was succeeded by Raymond R. Zimmerman. [2] And in 1944 he was also secretary and treasurer of the Consumer Distribution Corp. [3]

Personal

Brown married Katherine Terry of Albany, New York on December 12, 1905. [7] They had one daughter, named Priscilla, who would marry Irving W. Burr (1908–1989), [3] author of Applied Statistical Methods, and recipient of the 1958 Shewhart Medal.

Selected publications

Articles, a selection

Related Research Articles

James O. McKinsey Founder of McKinsey & Company

James Oscar McKinsey was an American accountant, management consultant, professor of accounting at the University of Chicago, and founder of McKinsey & Company.

Leon P. Alford American mechanical engineer, administrator for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and management-relations innovator

Leon Pratt Alford was an American mechanical engineer, organizational theorist, and administrator for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. known for his seminal work in the field of industrial management.

Henry R. Towne American engineer

Henry Robinson Towne was an American mechanical engineer and businessman, known as early systematizer of management.

American Management Association

The American Management Association (AMA) is an American non-profit educational membership organization for the promotion of management, based in New York City. The association has its headquarter in New York City, and has local head-offices throughout the world.

Wilfred Lewis was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, director for the machine tool firm William Sellers & Co, and later president of the Tabor Manufacturing Company. He is known for his early work on the bending of gear teeths, and his later work on scientific management. In the late 19th century Lewis had developed a bending equation, which became standard for gear design. The Lewis stress factor for gears is named after him.

Henry Wallace Clark American engineer

Henry Wallace Clark was an American consulting engineer, known for popularizing the work of Henry Gantt with his 1922 work "The Gantt chart; a working tool of management".

Joseph Taylor Gilman was an American football player. He played college football at Dartmouth College and was a consensus selection at the guard position on the 1904 College Football All-America Team.

Henry S. Dennison

Henry Sturgis Dennison was an American progressive business man, president and owner of Dennison Manufacturing Co. Paper Box Factory, economic analyst, and organizational theorist. He was president of the Taylor Society from 1919 to 1921, and recipient of the Henry Laurence Gantt Medal in 1932.

Conrad N. Lauer

Conrad Newton Lauer was an American mechanical engineer, general manager at Day & Zimmerman, Inc., chairman of the Philadelphia Gas Works Co., and 51st president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1932-33.

Paul Aaron Langevin Doty

Paul Aaron Langevin Doty was an American mechanical engineer, vice-president and general manager of the St. Paul Gas Light Co., president of St. Paul Trust and Savings Bank, and investor. He was the 53rd president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the year 1934-35.

James Wentworth Parker was an American mechanical engineer, president and general manager of the Detroit Edison Company, and 61st president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1942-1943.

J. Calvin Brown

J. Calvin Brown was an American consulting engineer and patent attorney of Los Angeles, known as 70th president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the year 1951-52.

Frederick Steele Blackall Jr. was an American engineer, and president and chairman of board Taft-Peirce Manufacturing Company, known as 72nd President of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1953-54.

David William Rowsen Morgan was an American mechanical engineer and business executive at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, known as 74th president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the year 1955-56.

Orval Leroy Lewis was an American mechanical and chemical engineer, and business executive, who served as president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in the year 1978-79.

William H. Gesell was an American engineer, business executive and director of Lehn & Fink Products Corporation in Bloomfield, New Jersey, now Sterling Drug. He served as the 2nd president of the Society for Advancement of Management in the years 1937-1939.

Myron Henry Clark was an American chemical engineer, management consultant, and director of the Labor-Management Institute at the University of Connecticut, known as long active proponent in labor-management affairs. He served as the 3rd president of the Society for Advancement of Management in the years 1939-1941.

James Keith Louden

James Keith Louden was an American industrial engineer, business executive, and management author. He served as the 4th president of the Society for Advancement of Management in the year 1941-1942, and was the recipient of the 1949 Gilbreth Medal.

References

  1. ↑ Industry Week. Volume 79. 1926. p. 1591
  2. 1 2 Moustafa H. Abdelsamad (ed.) "SAM Diamond anniversary," in: SAM Advanced Management Journal, Vol 53. Nr. 2 Spring 1988. p. 41
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Who's who in Finance and Industry, Volume 4. 1944. p. 133
  4. 1 2 3 Ernest Merton Best. Business Equipment Topics. Volumes 35-37. 1917. p. 222
  5. ↑ Office Appliances; The Magazine of Office Equipment, Volume 26. 1917. p. 46.
  6. ↑ Poor's Register of Directors and Executives, United States and Canada, 'Part 2. Standard and Poor's Corporation, 1957. p. 1953.
  7. 1 2 William Henry Van Benschoten. Concerning the Van Bunschoten or Van Benschoten family in America. 1907. p. 139
  8. ↑ Cleveland Engineering, Volume 15. 1922. p. 19
  9. ↑ Kathryn M. McPherson. Bedside Matters: The Transformation of Canadian Nursing, 1900-1990. 2003. p. 91.
  10. ↑ Thomas Cayet. "A Scientific Management of Work? A Micro-International Perspective on the Internationalization of Management Ideas." EBHA Conference paper. 2007.
  11. ↑ Lembke, Hans H. "Europäische Genossenschafter im US-Exil–Wiederaufbaupläne im Spannungsfeld zwischen amerikanischem und internationalem Dachverband (1941–1946)." Moving the Social 43 (2010): 63-82.
  12. ↑ Sproule, Michael J. (1997) Propaganda and Democracy: The American Experience of Media and Mass Persuasion, Cambridge University Press ISBN   0-521-47022-6. p. 131
  13. ↑ United States. Congress. Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress, Volume 93, Part 11. 1947.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.