Luther Halsey Gulick (1892–1993) was an American political scientist, Eaton Professor of Municipal Science and Administration at Columbia University, and Director of its Institute of Public Administration, known as an expert on

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment ( public governance), management of non-profit es ...

Biography

Luther Halsey Gulick was born January 17, 1892 in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. His father was congregationalist missionary Sidney Lewis Gulick (1860–1945) and his mother was Clara May (Fisher) Gulick. Luther Gulick graduated from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the United States and the second oldest continuously operating coeducational institute of highe ...

in 1914 and received his Ph.D. from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1920. Gulick taught at Columbia from 1931–1942, where he was appointed Eaton Professor of Municipal Science and Administration. In 1921 he had become president of its Institute of Public Administration and served until 1962. He then became its chairman and served until 1982. From 1936–1938 he served on the three member Committee on Administrative Management (better known as the

Brownlow Committee The President's Committee on Administrative Management, commonly known as the Brownlow Committee or Brownlow Commission, was a presidentially commissioned panel of political science and public administration experts that in 1937 recommended sweep ...

) in 1937 appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to reorganize the executive branch of the federal government. From 1954 to 1956, he served as city administrator of New York City. He died January 10, 1993 in

Greensboro, Vermont Greensboro is the southernmost town in Orleans County, Vermont, United States. The population was 811 at the 2020 census. The town includes the places of Campbells Corners, East Greensboro, Gebbie Corner, Greensboro Four Corners, Greensboro ...

. His first wife Helen Swift died in 1969. His second wife, Carol W. Moffett, died in 1989. He had two children, Luther Halsey Gulick Jr. and Clarence Gulick.

Family tree

Luther Gulick shared his name with his grandfather, missionary Luther Halsey Gulick Sr. (1828–1891), and uncle medical doctor Luther Halsey Gulick Jr. (1865–1918). His great-grandfather was an even earlier missionary to the

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, or Kingdom of Hawaiʻi ( Hawaiian: ''Ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina''), was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands. The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent islan ...

Peter Johnson Gulick Peter Johnson Gulick (March 12, 1796 – December 8, 1877) was a missionary to the Kingdom of Hawaii and Japan. His descendants carried on the tradition of missionary work, and included several scientists. Life Peter Johnson Gulick was born Marc ...

(1796–1877).

Work

POSDCORB

Among many other accomplishments in the field of

, Gulick is perhaps best known for the functions of the chief executive represented in the acronym

POSDCORB POSDCORB is an acronym widely used in the field of management and public administration that reflects the classic view of organizational theory. It appeared most prominently in a 1937 paper by Luther Gulick (in a set edited by himself and Lyndall ...

. Each letter stands for Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Co-ordinating, Reporting and Budgeting. Although not originating from Gulick, at least one other sequence has been uncovered, yet containing the same elements. Since these are among Gulick's organizational patterns, they are interrelated. According to Gulick, POSDCORB reflected the way in which his organizations approached projects. Early on, these included The Institute of Public Administration and New York's Bureau of Municipal Research.

Keynesian policies

Gulick's advocacy (with

Alvin Hansen Alvin Harvey Hansen (August 23, 1887 – June 6, 1975) was an American economist who taught at the University of Minnesota and was later a chair professor of economics at Harvard University. Often referred to as "the American Keynes", he was a w ...

) during World War II of Keynesian policies to promote full employment post-war helped to persuade

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...

to help develop post-war plans for the international economy that included considerable emphasis on free trade. In a time where the prevalent theme was the separation of politics and administration, Gulick advocated that it was impossible to separate the two.

Selected publications

* Gulick, Luther Halsey. ''Evolution of the Budget in Massachusetts.'' Vol. 2. Macmillan, 1920. * Gulick, Luther, and

Lyndall Urwick Lyndall Fownes Urwick (3 March 1891 – 5 December 1983) was a British management consultant and business thinker. He is recognised for integrating the ideas of earlier theorists like Henri Fayol into a comprehensive theory of management admi ...

, eds.
Papers on the Science of Administration
'' New York: Institute of Public Administration, 1937. * Gulick, Luther Halsey. ''Administrative Reflections from World War II.'' University of Alabama Press, 1948. * Gulick, Luther Halsey. ''American forest policy.'' Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1951. * Gulick, Luther Halsey. ''The Metropolitan Problems and American Ideas.'' Knopf, 1966. Articles, a selection: * Gulick, Luther. 1937.
Notes on the Theory of Organization
" In Gulick, Luther; Urwick, Lyndall. ''Papers on the Science of Administration.'' New York: Institute of Public Administration. pp. 3–45. * Gulick, Luther. 1937.
Science, values and public administration
" In Gulick, Luther; Urwick, Lyndall. ''Papers on the Science of Administration.'' New York: Institute of Public Administration. pp. 189–195.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gulick, Luther 1892 births 1993 deaths American centenarians Men centenarians Oberlin College alumni Columbia University alumni Columbia University faculty American political scientists Public administration scholars American expatriates in Japan 20th-century political scientists