Overview
The papers of Harvard Business School professor Clyde Orval Ruggles consist of personal and professional correspondence, teaching materials, research and writings, outside activities, and administrative records.
Dates
- Creation: 1918-1957
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Materials stored offsite; access requires advance notice. HBS Archives collections require a secondary registration form, please contact specialcollectionsref@hbs.edu for more information.
Extent
5 linear feet (18 boxes)The collection is organized into seven series, the largest of which comprises Clyde O. Ruggles’ correspondence and subject files from his years at HBS. There is also a significant amount of material in the collection related to his research and writing. The collection includes smaller amounts of material related to Ruggles’ teaching, consulting activities, and work at the University of Iowa and Ohio State University.
Biographical Note:
Clyde Orval Ruggles was born in Fairfield, Iowa on December 7, 1878. He received his BA from Iowa State Teachers College in 1906, his MA from the University of Iowa in 1907, and his PhD from Harvard in 1913. He also received a Litt.D. from Suffolk University in 1938.
Ruggles was the head of the Department of History and Social Science at the Iowa State Teachers College from 1909-1913. He then served on the faculty of the Department of Economics at Ohio State University from 1913-1920. He left Ohio State for a year to take up the position of Head of the School of Commerce and the Department of Economics at the University of Iowa from 1920-1921. He then moved back to Ohio State in 1921, serving as the Head of the Department of Business Administration from 1921 to 1926, and as Dean of the College of Commerce and Journalism from 1926-1928.
In 1928 he came to HBS as a Professor of Public Utility Management (later amended to Professor of Public Utility Management and Regulation), a position he held until his retirement from HBS in 1948, when he became an emeritus professor. He also served as the Director of the Division of Research from 1940-1942. After his retirement from HBS, he continued to teach, lecturing at or serving on the faculties of Ohio State, Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the Georgia Institute of Technology and Northeastern University.
Ruggles was a nationally known economist with diverse research interests in the areas of public utilities management and business education. In addition to his academic work, Ruggles also served as a consultant to a variety of public and private agencies and companies, including the Civil Aeronautics Board, the National Monetary Commission, the United States Shipping Board, and the Montreal Tramways Company.
Ruggles’ publications include Terminal Charges at United States Ports (1919), Problems in Public Utility Economics and Management (1933 and 1938), Aspects of the Organization, Functions and Financing of State Public Utility Commissions (1937), and numerous journal and newspaper articles.
Clyde O. Ruggles died on April 6, 1958 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Series Outline
The collection is arranged in the following series:
- Series I. Personal, 1939-1949
- Series II. Correspondence and Subject Files: Outside HBS, 1921-1926
- Series III. HBS Correspondence and Subject Files, 1920-1957
- Series IV. HBS Teaching, 1928-1948
- Series V. HBS Research and Writing, 1918-1953
- Series VI. HBS Outside Activities, 1941-1942
- Series VII. HBS Administrative, 1929-1948
Physical Location
ARCFA
Processing Information
Processed: March 2001
By: Christine Di Bella
Creator
- Title
- Ruggles, C. O. (Clyde Orval), 1878-1958. Clyde O. Ruggles Papers, 1918-1957: A Finding Aid
- Author
- Baker Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- bak00155
Repository Details
Part of the Baker Library Special Collections and Archives, Harvard Business School Repository
Baker Library Special Collections and Archives holds unique resources that focus on the evolution of business and industry, as well as the records of the Harvard Business School, documenting the institution's development over the last century. These rich and varied collections support research in a diverse range of fields such as business, economic, social and cultural history as well as the history of science and technology.
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specialcollectionsref@hbs.edu