Gayton Germane 1920-2009

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS —Gayton Germane, an emeritus professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business who in the 1950s founded one of the School’s first executive education programs and 30 years later pioneered an MBA course, The Commercial Development of Space, died January 17 of pneumonia. He was 88.

He had retired in 1988, and was the UPS Foundation Professor of Logistics, Emeritus at the time of his death. During his career Germane headed research projects that explored reusable space satellites and did early work on computer-assisted information programs for transit systems. He appeared before Congress as an expert witness and offered transportation policy advice to five U.S. presidential administrations as a consultant, policy director, or commission member.

Germane was an assistant professor at the Harvard Business School in 1952 before moving to Stanford as part of a generation of young academics hired following World War II to strengthen Stanford Business School. Shortly after arriving, Germane established the Transportation Management Program for Executives, the School’s second executive education program. It continued for 14 years.

In the same era Germane also served on a Stanford Business School faculty committee charged with making recommendations for implementing The New Look, a movement supported by the Ford Foundation and other reformers urging business schools across the country to become less oriented toward specific industries and move toward broader research-based disciplines.

Germane was born in 1920 in Carroll, Iowa, to Charles and Edith Germane. Charles taught at the University of Missouri and Edith at Stephens College and later at San Jose State University. Germane received his AB degree in economics with distinction from the University of Missouri, an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School, and AM and PHD degrees in economics from Harvard University.

In 1949 he married Janet Reinertson, a fellow academic at Harvard. They had two children: daughter Charlotte, Stanford AB ’76, who today lives in Nevada City, Calif., and a son, Bruce, who died as a young man.

Germane is survived by his widow; his sister, Edith Germane Hurd of Vineyard Haven, Mass.; his daughter and her husband, Karl Snyder; step-granddaughter Sara Saldaña and her husband, Ignacio Saldaña, of San Francisco; and two step-great-grandchildren. A memorial service and reception is planned at the Stanford Faculty Club at 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 2.

From 1956-59 Germane headed the first sponsored-research project at the Business School, making extensive use of computers to develop a system for planning, scheduling, and controlling transportation in overseas military theaters. Funded by the U.S. Army, this was one of many transportation projects Germane directed.

From 1965 to 1981 he traveled to Washington, D.C., monthly where he was active on the board of the Transportation Association of America (TAA). As assistant moderator and from 1968 on as moderator of the group, he directed the planning work done by eight different panels, six of which represented all modes of transportation, and two others of users and investors. The TAA shaped government policy by submitting its recommendations to Congress.

In 1987-88, with a project sponsored by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), he assembled a 12-member Stanford team to explore creating a reusable reentry space satellite and study its commercial applications. Earlier, Germane was the principal investigator for a project within Stanford’s Industrial Engineering department that completed a series of studies, many using early computer technology, to address transportation and logistical issues.

In addition to his Business School executive education program, Germane taught in executive courses in Sweden, Peru, South Africa, Brazil, and Canada; created and taught an airline management program for IBM; and was a faculty member for the executive education program operated by Eastern Airlines.

He wrote five books, most of them dealing with transportation, and was an editor or major contributor to a dozen more. He was editor and a contributor to The Executive Course, published in 1987, that was later translated into Japanese. He served as an editor of the journal Logistics and Transportation Review and was a referee of the journal Annals of the Society of Logistics Engineers.

Germane was director of transportation planning and research for United States Steel Corp. for three years in addition to serving as director of transportation policy for the Defense Department at the Pentagon. He was honored with the John Drury Sheehan Award in 1971, given by the National Council of Physical Distribution Management for contributions to the field.

In 1986 Germane drew national attention when he introduced an MBA elective course at the Business School on managing business enterprises in space. The first course of its kind in the country, it dealt with communication satellites, remote sensing and launch services, and the space station era. Students in the course met with representatives of a variety of organizations including NASA Ames Research Center, Ford Aerospace and Communications Corp., and Lockheed Missiles and Space Co.

In his non-academic life, Germane traveled extensively on four continents, sailed in the Caribbean and in the 1975 Transpacific Yacht Race, and enjoyed fencing, hiking, music, and gardening.

The family suggests that any contributions in his memory go to the El Camino Hospital Foundation because of the superb care he received there. The El Camino Hospital Foundation, 2500 Grant Road, M/S WIL210, Mountain View, CA 94040.

The family has established an email account for sharing memories at friendsofgayton@gmail.com. Please write to that address by April 21 if you plan to attend the memorial and reception.