Myles L. Mace papers

Myles LaGrange Mace was born October 10, 1911 in Montevideo, Minnesota. He studied at University of Minnesota, receiving a B.S. in Law in 1934, and then earned a LL.B at St. Paul College of Law in 1936, becoming a member of the Minnesota bar. Mace continued his education at Harvard Business School (HBS), earning an MBA in 1938, and staying on as a research assistant. In 1939, Mace became an instructor in Business and Government, and advanced to Assistant Professor in 1942. Mace left HBS in 1943 for military service as a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Army Air Force and returned to HBS in 1946 as Associate Professor of Business Administration. He began teaching Business Policy courses for MBA students and the Advanced Management Program. Mace also created the first entrepreneurship course at Harvard in 1947. Titled The Management of New Enterprise the course was (and is) regarded as the foundation of the School’s extensive entrepreneurial management program. While teaching at HBS, Mace also authored several books including The Board of Directors in Small Corporations in 1948 and The Growth and Development of Executives in 1950.

After a brief leave of absence in 1955, Mace returned to the HBS faculty in 1958 where he remained until his retirement in 1972. During this time, Mace would also be appointed Assistant Dean and serve as the School's first Associate Dean of External Affairs. A prolific writer, Mace authored Management Problems of Corporate Acquisitions published in 1962 and Directors: Myth and Reality published in 1971. Mace became Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus in 1972. He remained active in retirement, serving as contributing editor to Harvard Business Review from 1975-1978, writing articles and providing consulting services to various organizations. He received the HBS Distinguished Service Award in 1984. Mace died on March 24, 2000 at his home in Natick, Massachusetts.