Kriss Foundation Genealogy Database

_P_CCINFO 1-2438

Richard H. Holton, professor emeritus and former dean at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, died Monday at the age of 79 after battling cancer and Parkinson's disease.

Mr. Holton was a leader in the fields of marketing, international business, and entrepreneurship and left a lasting imprint in these areas at the Haas School.

On leave from the campus from 1963 to 1965, he served as US assistant secretary of commerce and was dean of the Haas School from 1967 to 1975.

Throughout his career, Mr. Holton focused on teaching, campus leadership, and public service.

''Dick Holton was the consummate colleague -- thoughtful, considerate, always willing to help and always concerned with the greater good of the school and the university," said Raymond Miles, an emeritus professor and former dean of the Haas School.

Mr. Holton grew up in London, Ohio. He attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1947. At Miami, he met Constance Minzey, and they married in 1947. They moved to Columbus, where he earned a master's degree in economics, and he then enrolled in the doctoral program in economics at Harvard University.

From 1951-52, Mr. Holton was assistant director of marketing projects at the Social Science Research Center at the University of Puerto Rico, work that led to his 1955 monograph, ''Marketing Efficiency in Puerto Rico," written with J.K. Galbraith and others.

He was assistant professor of economics at Harvard from 1953 to 1957. In 1957, he came to UC Berkeley as an associate professor in the School of Business Administration (later renamed the Haas School of Business) and remained for the rest of his career. Mr. Holton in 1959 became director of the campus's Institute of Business and Economics Research.

President John F. Kennedy appointed him assistant secretary of commerce in February 1963, and he remained in government service until February 1965, when he returned to UC Berkeley.

Mr. Holton's continuing interest in consumer protection resulted in a one-year appointment by president Lyndon B. Johnson as chairman of the President's Consumer Advisory Council. He then served from 1968 to 1972 as chairman of the Public AdvisoryCommittee on Truth in Lending Regulations of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Richard Holton -- economics professor, commerce official

• Charles Burress, Chronicle Staff Writer
  Thursday, November 3, 2005

Richard Holton, a former dean of UC Berkeley's business school, high-ranking official in two White House administrations and pioneer in bringing Western-style management to China, has died at age 79.

Professor Holton died Oct. 24 at his Berkeley home after suffering from cancer and Parkinson's disease.

As both a marketing professor and government official during the consumer rights movement of the 1960s, he urged business to be more responsive to consumer needs and demands, said his longtime friend and colleague Fred Balderston, a professor emeritus at Berkeley's Haas School of Business. President John F. Kennedy appointed him assistant secretary of commerce in February 1963, and he remained in the post under President Lyndon Johnson until 1965.

Professor Holton's concern with consumer protection led Johnson to appoint him for a year as chairman of the President's Consumer Advisory Council. From 1968 to 1972, he was chairman of the Public Advisory Committee on Truth in Lending Regulationsof the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Professor Holton also played a role in China's historic transition to the more market-oriented economy that has driven China's spectacular economic growth of recent years.

He was enlisted to head a program in Dalian to bring Western business ideas to Chinese managers as part of the broad economic reform movement that was being launched by Deng Xiaoping, China's leader at the time.

The U.S.-funded program, staffed by professors from business schools across the United States, began in 1980, and Professor Holton took over in 1981, spending the next five years commuting between China and his faculty duties at Berkeley.

"Quite a few of the graduates of the Dalian program ended up in key positions in the Beijing government and in major economic enterprises," Balderston said.

Professor Holton continued his contact with China and won recognition as an expert on the changing Chinese economy. He also was credited with having a major impact on the development of the Haas School of Business.

A course he started in 1970 with entrepreneur Leo Helzel on business development helped lay the foundation for the school's successful entrepreneurship program and its Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

Under his leadership as dean of the Haas School in 1972, the school established the San Francisco MBA program, with evening and weekend classes for qualified candidates who were already working in their careers. The Berkeley Evening and Weekend Program now enrolls more students than the full-time MBA program.

He also established student ratings for all courses, a system still used today.

Professor Holton grew up in London, Ohio, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in economics in 1947 from Miami University in Ohio, where he met Constance Minzey, who became his wife for 58 years.

He earned his master's degree from Ohio State University and his doctorate from Harvard in 1952, both in economics.

After working as an assistant professor of economics at Harvard from 1953 to 1957, he joined the UC Berkeley faculty as an associate professor in the business school, where he served as dean from 1967 to 1975. When he retired from Cal in 1991, he was awarded the campus' highest honor, the Berkeley Citation.

"Dick was a very good-natured and energetic person," Balderston said. "He reached out to people easily."

Professor Holton also served as a board member for Mills College, the World Affairs Council of Northern California, the Berkeley Public Library Foundation, the Alta Bates Foundation, the Council of Better Business Bureaus and Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his brother, David of Washington, D.C.; two daughters, Melissa Holton of Moss Landing and Jane Kriss of Inverness; a son, Tim Holton of Berkeley; and three grandchildren.

The family asks that donations be sent to Doctors without Borders at www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/.

A memorial will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Nov. 20 at the Faculty Club on the UC Berkeley campus.