Gilbert, Horace N. (Horace Nathaniel), 1901-1990

American visitor to Russia.

From the description of The Russian industrialization program : typescript, 1931. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122388225

Biography

When Horace Nathaniel Gilbert, Professor of Business Economics, was first brought to the California Institute of Technology in 1924 by Robert A. Millikan, his mission, as outlined by Millikan, was "...to give a course which would help the graduates of Caltech who were going into industry to know something about it." (Horace N. Gilbert, Oral History with Mary Terrall, Archives, California Institute of Technology, February 1978, p. 9.) That course, Economics 100, taught by Gilbert for many years, was one of the most popular offered by the institute. Open to graduate students, the course aimed at bridging the gap between engineering and business, and it relied heavily on the case method of instruction.

Born in Yakima, Washington, on June 15, 1901, Gilbert received the AB degree in 1923 from the University of Washington and the MBA with distinction from Harvard in 1926. He taught industrial business policy and industrial business economics at Harvard's Graduate School of Business before coming to Caltech in 1929. He remained at Caltech until his retirement in 1969. He returned to Harvard as a visiting lecturer in 1940-1942, where he taught industrial management and mobilization, using aircraft companies as case examples. From 1942 to 1945 he was the principal production supervisor for the Air Materiel Command of the US Air Force. In 1945 Gilbert became bombing analyst for the US Strategic Bombing Survey, then industrial economic advisor for the American High Commission for Germany under John McCloy (1949-1951). He later traveled extensively to developing nations and socialist countries, studying their economies and methods of industrialization.

Gilbert died on December 16, 1990. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Economic Association, and the National Association for Student Affairs. He received an honorary DBA from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in 1971.

From the guide to the Horace N. Gilbert Papers, 1923-1987, (California Institute of Technology. Caltech Archives)

Biographical/Historical Note

American visitor to Russia

From the guide to the Horace N. Gilbert typescript : The Russian industrialization program, 1931, (Hoover Institution Archives)