Former students and colleagues pay tribute to a man and his vision.
A quick glance at the history of Chicago over the last fifty years
is enough to reveal the major role that James H. Lorie, Ph.D.
’47, played in revitalizing the school and bringing it to the
preeminence it enjoys today. But the former students and colleagues
of Lorie who gathered at Gleacher Center in April to celebrate
a professorship in his name praised Lorie for more than his vision
and administrative “skill. While some lauded Lorie for his role
shaping business education at Chicago, many more paid tribute
to the man and the impact he had on their personal and professional
lives.
“I can’t possibly impart the disdain with which my advisers responded
in 1948 when I suggested that some aspect of the stock market
might be suitable for a dissertation. But Jim had the foresight
to see that a solid base of data was going to be needed to support
any meaningful study of security prices. And even more importantly,
he had the gumption and drive to do something about it,” said
Rex “Jim” Bates, ’49, retired vice chairman of State Farm Insurance
Companies, recalling Lorie’s work to establish the Center for
Research on Security Prices (CRSP). “He elevated the intellectual
status of investment analysis, and as a consequence, we analysts
were finally able to come out of the back room.”
David Booth, ’71, agreed that Lorie’s work with CRSP “launched
a whole new science” and praised Lorie for his teaching ability
and his concern for students. “Even in a big classroom with a
lot of people, Jim made you feel special, like he was talking
to you directly,” Booth said. “He always had a personal interest
in my outcome.”
Perhaps it is the personal interest that Lorie took in all of
his students that prompted more than sixty individuals to contribute
to the professorship. News of the professorship spread by word
of mouth, and many alumni approached the GSB to find out how they
could help. Dan Cashdan, ’86, who led fundraising efforts for
the chair, said his was not a trivial undertaking but neither
was it a hard sell. “Putting together a chair is a sales job,
and picking the product is important. Being able to pick Jim as
my ‘product’ was the most fortunate thing I could do. Because
when I would get on the phone with somebody and tell them what
I was ‘selling’ was a tribute to Jim Lorie, it was a very short
conversation. They bought it right away.”
After the scheduled speakers concluded their remarks, a half dozen
others spontaneously shared memories and paid tribute to Lorie,
calling him “a second father,” “a bulwark,” “the easiest guy on
campus because he made learning fun,” and “someone who knows the
value of a good–or really bad–joke.” Amidst the laughter, applause,
and occasional tears, the evening was imbued not only with a spirit
of gratitude for Lorie’s contributions but a sense of hope that
the professorship endowed in his name would allow the tradition
of scholarship and mentoring to continue.
In his final remarks, Cashdan relayed a recent conversation with
Lorie in which Lorie said he hoped the professorship would attract
outstanding finance academics to Chicago. “Putting brilliant people
together with other brilliant people in a specific environment
such as Chicago creates better outcomes than is possible by any
of those individuals acting independently or in other environments,”
Lorie told Cashdan. “I hope that [the professorship] will bring
another academic tiger into the pride.”–M.M.B.
Dean Robert S. Hamada called Lorie one of the “architects of the Graduate School of Business as we know it,” and Lorie truly has been a lifelong advocate of the school. He came to Chicago in 1945 at age 23, earning his Ph.D. two years later and accepting a tenure-track position at the school. The rest, as they say, is history. Click here to learn more about Lorie's years at Chicago.