Dr. Cyril O'Donnell (December 1900 – February 16, 1976) was a prolific professor and teacher of management at the University of California at Los Angeles. He consulted on operations management topics for some of the largest US corporations such as

Hughes Aircraft The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting p ...

, as well as the government of

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

. He was a co-author of the book
Principles of Management
' with

Harold Koontz Harold D. (Howdy) Koontz (May 19, 1909 - February 11, 1984) was an American organizational theorist, professor of business management at the University of California, Los Angeles and a consultant for many of America's largest business organizations ...

which sold more than two million copies worldwide with translations in 15 languages. Cyril O'Donnell was a pioneer along with others such as George Terry, Harold Koontz and Ralph Davis. All of which published management textbooks in the 1950s that defined management as a process consisting of a set of interdependent functions. These and several other management experts became identified with what came to be known as the process school of management.Enotes - Management Functions: Encyclopedia of Management
/ref> Professor O'Donnell was born in Lincoln, Nebraska in December 1900. He grew up in rural Alberta, Canada, and attended the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

, from which he received the Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1924 and the Master of Arts degree in 1926. He returned to the United States and in 1930 was appointed chairman of the Department of Economics at

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

. In 1944 Professor O'Donnell received his Ph.D. from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

. In 1948, Cyril joined the faculty at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, where he taught business and management to undergraduate, graduate and business executives. He also served as chairman of the board of control for

. He retired in 1968 and continued to consult for various corporations and entities. Cyril J. O'Donnell died at home in Bel Air, California on February 16, 1976, at the age of seventy-six.

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