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Professor Emeritus Oscar Serbein Dies at 86
January 2006
STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—Oscar N. Serbein Jr., a faculty member at the Stanford Graduate School of Business who specialized in risk management and insurance, passed away Jan. 21 at his home in Fullerton, Calif. He was 86.
Born in Collins, Iowa, in 1919, Serbein earned his PhD in 1951 from Columbia University. He also received a BA with Highest Distinction in 1940 and an MS in 1941 from the University of Iowa.
Serbein accepted an appointment as professor of insurance in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University in 1959 and taught courses in insurance, risk management, operations, decision sciences, and estate planning. He remained at the Business School until his retirement in 1989. He served as the director of the doctoral program in the Business School from 1960 to 1964 and as the director of the Insurance Case Research Project from 1966 to 1970. He began his academic career in 1951, when he joined the Columbia University faculty as a statistics professor.
Serbein authored Paying for Medical Care in the United States (1953) and Educational Activities of Business (1961). With John H. Magee he co-authored Property and Liability Insurance (1967), and with Mark R. Greene, Risk Management Text and Cases (1978). He served as editor of the Series in Risk and Insurance, John Wiley and Sons Inc. (1966-1981).
Throughout his career, Serbein took on many different roles including serving as a member of the Stanford University Committee on Faculty and Staff Affairs from 1970 to 1976 and later as its chairman (1978-81). He also participated as a member of the University Risk Management Committee and of the University Committee on Earthquake Financing in 1986-87.
He served his country as a member of the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1946, attaining the rank of major in the Air Weather Service.
A devoted family man, Serbein is survived by his wife of 53 years, Alice; daughter, Mary Parker; son, John; and two granddaughters, Kristin and Kelly Parker. He will be interred at Skylawn Memorial Park, San Mateo, Calif.
