Edward C. Bursk

From Philosopedia.org

Edward Collins Bursk (1907 - 1990)

Bursk, who was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, graduated from Amherst College (AB 1928) and Harvard (MA 1929), intending to spend a lifetime teaching Latin and Greek.

His first teaching position was at Dartmouth College (1931-1933), but the Depression caused him to return to Lancaster to take over as President and General Manager of J. H. Bursk & Company, a family firm which distributed sugar. He returned to teaching in 1941 at Franklin and Marshall College and moved to Harvard Business School in 1942 as an instructor. He was promoted to assistant professor (1943) and to associate professor (1946), then became full professor in 1954.

The Harvard Business Review

Bursk joined the Harvard Business Review staff in 1943 as Managing Editor and took the position as Editor in 1947, retaining that position until 1971. In addition, he edited and co-edited a number of books including

Getting Things Done in Business (1953);

The World of Business; How to Increase Executive Effectiveness (1954);

Human Relations for Management (1957);

The Management Team (1955); and

Business and Religion (1959).

In 1964 he appeared as moderator in an eight-part television series jointly sponsored by Harvard and WGBH entitled "Marketing in the News."

Bursk was an active consultant, speaker, and board member during his career at the journal.

Married and the father of three sons (Edward, Jr., John and Christopher), he lived in Cohasset, Massachusetts, and became professor emeritus in 1978.

OBITUARY

The Boston Globe published the following obituary when a memorial service was held at the First Parish Unitarian Church in Cohasset, Massachusetts, where he was long active and earlier served as moderator.

Edward Collins Bursk, editor of Harvard Business Review from 1946 to 1972 and professor emeritus of marketing at the Harvard Business School, died Monday at his home in Cohasset. He was 82.

The monthly publication broadened its coverage during Mr. Bursk's tenure and increased its circulation from 2,000 to 150,000. He retired in 1989 after 47 years as a professor at the school.

A member of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Kennedy administration, Mr. Bursk was an advocate of international competitive cooperation. In 1958, he founded the International Marketing Institute of Boston, which trains foreign businessmen, and became its educational director.

Mr. Bursk wrote Text and Cases in Marketing; a Scientific Approach (1968) and Modern Marketing Strategy (1972). He was a coeditor of the four-volume World of Business (1964), a collection of writings dating to biblical times.

Born in Lancaster, Pa., he graduated from Mercersburg (Pa.) Academy in 1924 and Amherst College in 1928. He received a master's degree in Greek and Latin at Harvard University in 1929. After teaching these languages at Dartmouth College, in 1933 he became president and general manager of J. H. Bursk & Son of Lancaster, a wholesale distributor of sugar.

Mr. Bursk was honored in 1966 by the American Marketing Association. After retiring from the business review, he published the monthly Advanced Management Newsletter.

During the 1960s he served as chairman of Browne & Nichols School of Cambridge and was moderator of the "Marketing on the Move" series on WGBH-TV (Channel 2).

Mr. Bursk was a member of the Cohasset Golf Club and the Badminton & Tennis Club of Boston.

He and his wife had three sons, Edward C., John H., and Christopher.