Henry Wallace Clark (July 27, 1880 – April 7, 1948) was an American

consulting engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, known for popularizing the work of

Henry Gantt Henry Laurence Gantt (; May 20, 1861 – November 23, 1919) was an American mechanical engineer and management consultant who is best known for his work in the development of scientific management. He created the Gantt chart in the 1910s. Gantt ...

with his 1922 work "The Gantt chart; a working tool of management". In 1934 he was awarded the

Henry Laurence Gantt Medal The Henry Laurence Gantt Medal was established in 1929 by the American Management Association and the Management section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for "distinguished achievement in management and service to the community" in ho ...

by the

ASME The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

.Lester Robert Bittel, Muriel Albers Bittel (1978), ''Encyclopedia of professional management .'' p. 456 A year after his death the Wallace Clark Award was initiated, an award for distinguished contribution to

scientific management Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...

in the international field.

Biography

Youth and early career

Born in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

to William Allen Clark and Mary Ann Clark (born Rankin), Clark attended the local schools, and graduated in 1902 from the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

.Robert Elton King (2000) ''King family genealogy of Isaac King (1813-1887) & Mary Hankins King (1817-1883)'' . p. 1286 After graduation Clark started his career as assistant manager at the Machine Tool Co. of Cincinnati, and spend one year in the Orient. From 1910 to 1917 he was employed by the

Remington Typewriter Company E. Remington and Sons (1816–1896) was a manufacturer of firearms and typewriters. Founded in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington in Ilion, New York, on March 1, 1873, it became known for manufacturing the first commercial typewriter. History The r ...

, where he was private secretary to the President. and ended up as office manager. Here Clark met

, who had reorganized the Remington Typewriter factory at

Ilion, New York Ilion is a village in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 7,790 at the 2017 census. The village is at the northern edge of the town of German Flatts, though a tiny portion is in the town of Frankfort. It is south of the ...

in 1910. From 1919 to 1920 Clark was staff engineer at the H.L. Gantt Company.

Further career

In 1920 Clark founded his own management consulting company Wallace Clark & Co. in New York, specialized in international management. It grew with offices in London, Berlin Prague, Warsaw, Geneva and Athens. Among his employees was

Walter Polakov Walter Nicholas Polakov (July 18, 1879 – December 20, 1948 ) was a Russian mechanical engineer, consulting engineer, and pioneer of scientific management. Biography Early years Walter Polakov was born in Luga, Russia, and attended High Sc ...

, who had launching his own consulting company in 1915, and Paul Eugene Holden in the year 1930-31. Another employee was the Frenchman Serge Heranger, who wrote the article "Applying the Gantt Chart in France." In the 1949 the

American Society of Mechanical Engineers The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing ...

(ASME) and three other societies initiated the annual Wallace Clark Award for distinguished contribution to scientific management in the international field.

Work

Clark was "disciple of Henry Gantt", and worked in the tradition of Frederick Taylor and the

Scientific management Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...

Scientific management

The scientific management movement had originated with Frederick W. Taylor’s 1911 book ''Scientific Management'', in which Taylor argued for the application of physical engineering principles to the organization of manufacturing companies. Clark became one the movement’s more prolific exponents.United States Department of the Interior National Park Service.
NPS Form 10-900; OMB No. 1024-001
" ''dnr.mo.gov'', 2015 Clark wrote several books over the course of his career, including ''The Gantt Chart: A Working Tool of Management'' (1922), ''Shop Office and Forms: Their Design and Use'' (1925), and ''The Foreman and His Job'' (1926).

Woodward & Tiernan Printing Company Building

In the 1920s Woodward & Tiernan sought to build the most advanced printing plant possible and selected the finest talent to plan and design it. The firm first enlisted Wallace Clark (1880-1948; born Henry Wallace Clark, but publicly listed as Wallace Clark), one of the nation’s foremost industrial engineers, to work with its executives in planning the factory’s interior. Clark’s recommendations produced a rational factory in which production flowed east to west and from the top down. Such attention to the relationship between building form and the material production inside is a fundamental component of daylight factory design.

Studies in Europe

In 1926 Clark was selected by Princeton Professor

Edwin W. Kemmerer Edwin Walter Kemmerer (June 29, 1875 – December 16, 1945) was an American economist, who became famous as an economic adviser to foreign governments in many countries (Philippines, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Germany, Chile, South Africa, Po ...

to study and advise Poland’s government on its industrial practices and was named a Commander of the Cross of Poland Restored for his efforts. In 1933 he led a commission charged with studying and reorganizing government monopolies in Turkey, and later served as the American representative on industrial engineering to the International Labor Office in Switzerland.

Implementation of the Gantt chart in Europe and Britain

In a 2015 article, Daniel A. Wren, traced the implementation of the Gantt chart in Europe, and especially in Britain. He found, that: :"... developed to meet the shipbuilding and use needs for the Great War (World War I), the Gantt chart was disseminated through the work of Wallace Clark during the 1930s in numerous public sector and private organizations in 12 nations. The Gantt concept was applied in a variety of industries and firms using batch, continuous processing and/or sub-assembly lines in mass production. Traditional scientific management techniques were expanded for general management, such as financial requirement through budgetary control. Clark and his consulting firm were responsible for implementing a managerial tool, the Gantt chart, in an international setting. Research limitations/implications." Daniel A. Wren, (2015) "Implementing the Gantt chart in Europe and Britain: the contributions of Wallace Clark", ''Journal of Management History,'' Vol. 21 Issue: 3, pp.309-327,

Publications

* Clark, Wallace, Walter Nicholas Polakov, and Frank W. Trabold.
The Gantt chart: A working tool of management
'. The Ronald Press Company, 1922; 1952. * Clark, Wallace. ''Shop and office forms: Their design and use''. McGraw-Hill, 1925. * Clark, Wallace. ''A Control Chart for the Chief Executive''. 1925. * Clark, Wallace. ''Production Planning and Control: 15.92, Industrial Problems (defense Production).'' Wallace Clark & Co, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1941 Articles, a selection: * Wallace Clark.
Training of Office Workers
" in: ''Management Review,'' March 1922. p. 7-10 * Clark, Wallace. "Relieving industry of burden." ''Mechanical Engineering'', December (1922): 819-820. * Clark, Wallace. "Executive Control of Future Results." ''Mgmt. & Admr'' (1924). * Wallace Clark, Otto T. Mallery, H.R. Woods, Darwin J. Meserole and Woodlief Thomas. "Government Expenditures and Business Stability]: Discussion." ''Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York''. Vol. 12, No. 3, Stabilizing Business (Jul., 1927), pp. 129–135

References

External links

Portrait of Wallace Clark
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Henry Wallace 1880 births 1948 deaths 20th-century American engineers American management consultants University of Cincinnati alumni