EDGAR H. SCHEIN

1928 - 2023

SCHEIN, Edgar H. Passed away in Palo Alto, California, on January 26th. He and son Peter had just finished a productive afternoon of work with organization development colleagues. He was 94. Edgar Henry Schein was born in Zurich in 1928 to Marcel and Hilde Schein, both physicists. He lived in Prague, Odessa, and Zurich before immigrating to America at age ten where his father became professor of physics at University of Chicago. Eventually, Ed earned a Bphil at University of Chicago, a BA and an MA in social psychology at Stanford and a PhD in Social Relations from Harvard. He joined the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant researching Chinese handling of Korean War POWs resulting in Coercive Persuasion. At Walter Reed Medical Center he met Mary Lodmell, his life partner and mother of their children. Ed spent 67 years as a professor and professor emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management. In 2011, he moved to Palo Alto where he lived independently.  Ed authored numerous books and papers while consulting for individuals and organizations around the globe. Recognized as a founder of the field of organizational studies, he published over twenty books, most notably Organizational Psychology, Process Consultation, Organizational Culture and Leadership, Helping, and Humble Inquiry. Through their Organizational Culture and Leadership Institute, he co-authored with Peter Schein Corporate Culture Survival Guide, Humble Inquiry, 2nd edition., as well as, posthumously, Humble Leadership, and Career Anchors Reimagined also with John Van Maanen. He received the 2009 Distinguished Scholar-Practitioner Award of the Academy of Management, the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Leadership Association, the 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Organizational Development Network. Ed was an avid tennis player, nature-lover, opera enthusiast and landscape sketcher. His young family summered lakeside in Bryant Pond, ME while he led early groups at the National Training Labs (NTL). Later, he gathered his family in Truro, MA while teaching at the Cape Cod Institute. In recent years, he actively advocated around global warming, eventually co-organizing a collection, Social Scientists Confronting Global Crises. Ed was predeceased by his wife, Mary; and is survived by his daughters, Louisa Schein (Ernie Renda), Liz Krengel (Wally); and his son/collaborator, Peter Schein (Jamie). He was also blessed with seven grandchildren, Alex, Peter and Oliver Krengel, Sophia and Ernesto Renda, and Annie and Stephanie Schein; and three great-grandsons. He treasured cultivating personal relationships in both work and family. We will miss his curious inquiry and his spirit for helping. Remembrances of Ed are welcome at rememberingedschein@gmail.com Donations may be made to Massachusetts Audubon Society where Ed served on the board (https://www.massaudubon.org/), Cambridge Neighbors, an organization Ed helped to found (https://cambridgeneighbors.org/). Ed's family will hold a private memorial on May 13 after he is interred at Mt. Auburn Cemetery.

View the online memorial for Edgar H. SCHEIN