Howard H. Stevenson, Harvard’s ‘Father of Entrepreneurship,’ Dies at 85

The Harvard Business School professor revolutionized how future founders were taught in the ’80s and coined a succinct definition that remains a business-world mantra more than 40 years later.

Harvard Business School. Photo: Getty

Howard H. Stevenson, the hedge fund guru, philanthropist, and Harvard Business School professor emeritus hailed as “the father of entrepreneurship,” died Saturday night after a long illness. He was 85.

His death was confirmed by Columbia University professor and author Amar Bhide, a former protégé at Harvard, frequent collaborator, and longtime friend.

Howard was who I wanted to be when

“Howard was who I wanted to be when I grew up,” said Bhide, who co-authored several books with his mentor. “He was irreverent, incredibly bright, creative, and successful. His intellectual generosity was like nothing else I’ve encountered before or since.”

Stevenson grew up in Holladay, Utah. After graduating from Stanford University in 1963, the math major went to Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA in 1965 and DBA in 1969 before embarking on a long career in finance and education.

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He started out teaching business policy at Harvard in the late 1960s before accepting a position at a Boston investment bank and, in 1978, becoming vice president of finance and administration at a pulp and specialty-paper manufacturer in Springfield, Massachusetts.

In 1982, HBS dean John McArthur brought Stevenson

In 1982, HBS dean John McArthur brought Stevenson back to his alma mater to prop up a flailing entrepreneurship program. MBA students wanted to study the field, but faculty members were reluctant to teach a subject they viewed as academically flawed, with no clear path for career advancement.

“I went to talk with Howard,” McArthur later recalled, “and told him, ‘This entrepreneurship area is never going anywhere unless people think it’s up to our highest standards of academic and human values. I think you’re the one.’”

Source: www.inc.com