Thaddeus Spratlen

Last updated
Thaddeus H. Spratlen
Born1930
DiedMay 18, 2021
Nationality American
Institution Foster School of Business
University of California, Los Angeles
Western Washington University
Fieldmarketing
management
Alma mater Ohio State University, B.A./ B.S. (1956), MA (1957), PhD (1962)

Thaddeus H. Spratlen (1930 - May 18, 2021) was an American economist who was Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington's Foster School of Business. He was the first African American faculty member at Western Washington State College (now Western Washington University) and the Foster School of Business, [1] and was among the founders of the National Economic Association. [2]

Contents

Education and early life

Born in 1930 in Union City, Tennessee, Spratlen was sent north to Cleveland, Ohio by his family for greater educational opportunities available to African-Americans there. He graduated from Central High School (Cleveland, Ohio) and began his college studies at Kent State University. [3] However, economic constraints after the death of his father led him to enroll in the U.S. Army, where he served as an artillery officer in the Korean War. [4] He used the educational benefits available to him as a veteran to continue his education, earning several degrees from the Ohio State University. [3]

Career

Spratlen was offered a position at Western Washington State College in 1962, when the head of the search committee removed the photos of the finalists from their application materials. [3] AFter eight years at that university and three years teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles, he joined the University of Washington in 1972, and remained at that university for the remainder of his career. At the University of Washington, he was known for building relationships between the business school and local minority-owned businesses in Seattle, and for his mentorship of African American business students. [4]

Selected works

Related Research Articles

Cleveland City and county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States

Cleveland, officially the City of Cleveland, is a major city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the Northeastern part of the state, the city is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. maritime border with Canada and approximately 60 miles west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania state border. The largest city on Lake Erie and one of the major cities of the Great Lakes region, Cleveland anchors one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the U.S. Politically, the metro area is the most reliably Democratic in Ohio, with every Cleveland mayor since 1990 being a member of the party, including current mayor Justin Bibb.

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Most of these institutions were founded in the years after the American Civil War and are concentrated in the Southern United States. During the period of segregation prior to the Civil Rights Act, the great majority of institutions of higher education served predominantly white students, and disqualified or limited black American enrollment. For a century after the end of slavery in the United States in 1865, most colleges and universities in the Southern United States prohibited all African Americans from attending, while institutions in other parts of the country regularly employed quotas to limit admissions of Black people. HBCUs were established to provide opportunities to African Americans and are largely responsible for establishing and expanding the African-American middle class.

Northeast Ohio Place in Ohio, United States

The region Northeast Ohio, in the US state of Ohio, in its most expansive usage contains six metropolitan areas along with eight micropolitan statistical areas. Most of the region is considered either part of the Cleveland–Akron–Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area and media market or the Youngstown–Warren, OH-PA Combined Statistical Area and media market. In total the region is home to 4,502,460 residents. It is also a part of the Great Lakes megalopolis, containing over 54 million people. Northeast Ohio also includes most of the area known historically as the Connecticut Western Reserve. In 2011, the Intelligent Community Forum ranked Northeast Ohio as a global Smart 21 Communities list. It has the highest concentration of Hungarian Americans in the United States.

Frances P. Bolton American politician (1885–1977)

Frances Payne Bingham Bolton was a Republican politician from Ohio. She served in the United States House of Representatives. She was the first woman elected to Congress from Ohio. In the late 1930s Bolton took an isolationist position on foreign policy, opposing the Selective Service Act in 1940, and opposing Lend-Lease in 1941. During the war she called for desegregation of the military nursing units, which were all-white and all-female. In 1947 she sponsored a long-range bill for nursing education, but it did not pass. When the draft was resumed after the war, Bolton strongly advocated the conscription of women. Pointing to their prominent role during the war, she said it was vitally important that women continue to play these essential roles. She saw no threat to marriage, and argued that women in military service would develop their character and skills, thus enhancing their role in the family. As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Bolton strongly supported the United Nations, especially UNICEF, and strongly supported the independence of African colonies.

Louis Stokes American politician

Louis Stokes was an American attorney, civil rights pioneer and politician. He served 15 terms in the United States House of Representatives – representing the east side of Cleveland – and was the first African American congressman elected in the state of Ohio. He was one of the Cold War-era chairmen of the House Intelligence Committee, headed the Congressional Black Caucus, and was the first African American on the House Appropriations Committee.

C. J. Prentiss is an American politician of the Democratic party who served in the Ohio State Senate from 1999 until 2007. During the 126th Ohio General Assembly, she served as Minority Leader.

Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Law school of the Ohio State University in Columbus, OH, US

The Michael E. Moritz College of Law is the professional graduate law school of the Ohio State University. Founded in 1891, the school is located in Drinko Hall on the main campus of the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools.

Gregory Howard Williams is a scholar, attorney, law school professor, author, and formerly the 27th President of the University of Cincinnati and the 11th President of the City College of New York (2001–2009).

Merze Tate

Vernie Merze Tate was a professor, scholar and expert on United States diplomacy. She was the first African-American graduate of Western Michigan Teachers College, first African-American woman to attend the University of Oxford, first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in government and international relations from Harvard University, as well as one of the first two female members to join the Department of History at Howard University.

Jonathan H. Adler American legal scholar

Jonathan H. Adler is an American legal commentator and law professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He has been recognized as one of the most cited professors in the field of environmental law. His research is also credited with inspiring litigation that challenged the Obama Administration's implementation of the Affordable Care Act, resulting in the Supreme Court's decision in King v. Burwell.

Edward Christopher Williams American novelist

Edward Christopher Williams was the first African-American professionally trained librarian in the United States. His sudden death in 1929 ended his career the year he was expected to receive the first Ph.D. in librarianship. Williams was born on February 11, 1871, in Cleveland, Ohio, to an African-American father and an Irish mother. Upon his graduation with distinction from Adelbert College of Western Reserve University in 1892, he was appointed Assistant Librarian of Hatch Library at WRU. Two years later, he was promoted to librarian of Hatch Library until 1909, when he resigned to assume the responsibility of the Principal of M Street High School in Washington, D.C. He continued his career as University Librarian of Howard University until his death on December 24, 1929. Williams was rediscovered as a Harlem Renaissance author with the 2004 publication of his novel When Washington Was in Vogue, considered among the earliest epistolary novels by an African American.

Western University (Kansas)

Western University (Kansas) (1865–1943) was a historically black college (HBCU) established in 1865 as the Quindaro Freedman's School at Quindaro, Kansas, United States. The earliest school for African Americans west of the Mississippi River, it was the only one to operate in the state of Kansas.

Jane Edna Hunter

Jane Edna Hunter, an African-American social worker, was born near Pendleton, South Carolina. In 1911 she established the Working Girls Association in Cleveland, Ohio, which later became the Phillis Wheatley Association of Cleveland.

Winston E. Willis American real estate developer

Winston Earl Willis is an American former real estate developer who established his business in Cleveland, Ohio during the early 1960s. He created University Circle Properties Development, Inc., which owned real estate parcels in Cleveland and was the largest employer of black people in that part of the country. Under UCPD at East 105th and Euclid, upwards of 23 businesses operated simultaneously. In the 1970s and 80s Willis ran afoul of tax and other laws and lost his properties to seizure in 1983. His ongoing legal battles with the city of Cleveland over ownership of his lands spans several decades, including his 2007 petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Harry Clay Smith American politician

Harry C. Smith was a newspaper editor and state legislator in Ohio. An African American, Smith was one of the strongest advocates for civil rights in the pre World War II era and was responsible for some of the strictest anti-lynching legislation in the country at the time. He served in the Ohio House of Representatives.

John Patterson Green American politician

John Patterson Green was an American attorney, politician, public servant, and writer. He was among the first African Americans to hold public office in Cleveland, Ohio. A Republican, he was elected as a Justice of the Peace in 1873. He served in the Ohio House of Representatives in 1882. In 1891, he was elected to the Ohio Senate, the first African American state senator in Ohio. Green introduced the legislation that established Labor Day in Ohio as a state holiday.

Jean Murrell Capers American judge

Eugenia "Jean" Marie Murrell Strode Capers was an American judge, educator, and politician.

William Donald Bradford is an American economist who is Professor Emeritus of Finance and former Dean of the Foster School of Business at the University of Washington. He is a former president of the National Economic Association and was inducted into the Minority Business Hall of Fame in 2013.

Central High School (Cleveland, Ohio)

Central High School was a public high school in the Central neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1846 and merged with East Tech in 1952. It had several locations during its existence. The school served white and African American students.

References

  1. "Remembering Thaddeus H. Spratlen, a trailblazer and champion of social justice". American Marketing Association. 2021-05-19. Retrieved 2021-07-13.
  2. "National Economic Association 50th Anniversary Celebration and Honors Luncheon" (PDF). January 4, 2020.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. 1 2 3 "Teacher, advocate and pioneer: Thaddeus Spratlen's trailblazing legacy". Fisher College of Business. Retrieved 2021-07-13.
  4. 1 2 "Remembering Thaddeus Spratlen: Trailblazing scholar, teacher, mentor and advocate". Foster Blog. 2021-05-21. Retrieved 2021-07-13.