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Stanford GSB News

 

Emeritus Professor Dougall Dies

August 1996

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—Herbert Edward Dougall, the C. O. G. Miller Distinguished Professor of Finance, Emeritus, at Stanford Business School, died August 6 in Portola Valley, Calif. He was 93.

Known for his expertise in corporate finance and investments, Dougall was the first member of the Business School faculty to be awarded an endowed chair. He came to Stanford from Northwestern in 1946 and served the Business School for 22 years until his retirement in 1968. A Canadian by birth, Dougall received his B.A. from the University of Toronto in 1925 and both his MBA (1926) and PhD (1930) degrees from Northwestern. He became a United States citizen in 1938.

When Dougall arrived at Stanford, MBA students were already using a book he coauthored, Corporate Financial Policy, in their finance classes. That book and his later books, Investments and Capital Markets and Institutions, were considered definitive in their field. The latter is still in print.

"In the 1950s, Herb was the finance area at Stanford," says James C. Van Horne, the A.P. Gianini Professor of Banking and Finance. "During the late fifties and the sixties he formed the finance group at the Business School, providing the foundation for what it is today. One of his very important contributions was to chair the search committee that brought Ernie Arbuckle to the School as dean. Herb was instrumental in my being hired, and I am forever indebted to him. He was a perfect gentleman at all times and an inspiration to all of us. I looked up to him very much."

After his retirement, Dougall taught as a visitor at the Australian Institute of Management and at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa. He spent most of his time in Portola Valley, where he continued to revise his books and also remained active in Valley Presbyterian Church, serving as an elder and lending the church his considerable expertise in financial matters.

Dougall was a director of several firms, a member of professional organizations including the American Economic Association and the American Finance Association, and a recipient of research fellowships from the Social Science Research Council and the Ford Foundation. At Northwestern he served as director of the undergraduate division of the business school and director of the summer session. During World War II he was a technical advisor to the President's Emergency Railroad Board.

Dougall is survived by two daughters, Eleanor Hall and Jean Boydston, both of Tucson, seven grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. His wife Louise Alice Perkens died in 1984.

A memorial service was held August 10 in Portola Valley. Donations in his name may be made to Valley Presbyterian Church, Portola Valley, Calif. or to Stanford Business School, Office of Development, Stanford, CA 94305-5015.

—Janet Zich