Production and Operations Management 2002
WICK SKINNER: A LIFE SAILING AGAINST THE WIND
Abstract
Despite the enormous, enduring influence of Wick Skinner’s writing and ideas and the worldwide acclaim he has received during his lifetime, the memory of his disastrous first presentation at an academic seminar over 40 years ago still rankles in his mind. His critics on that cold December afternoon in 1960 did not argue much with his firsthand experience and observations; they simply disagreed with the conclusions he drew from them. Wick walked out of that experience bloodied but unbowed, and determined to see his views vindicated. He was not easily intimidated, even then. Although only in his third year of doctoral studies at the time, he was not your typical young faculty Lecturer. By then it already had been over 16 years since he had graduated from Yale with a Chemical Engineering degree (achieved in a war-accelerated 33 months). Immediately inducted into the Army, he soon was assigned to the Engineering Corps working on the Manhattan Project at Las Alamos. Most histories of that project focus on the theoretical breakthroughs that underpinned the development of the atomic bomb and neglect the fact that actually making the first bombs required a huge and complex engineering/manufacturing effort. Wick spent much of his time measuring material and manpower flows, and he was
- DOI
- 10.1111/j.1937-5956.2002.tb00180.x
- Sources
- openalex