Edgar H. Schein A Great Life!

March 5, 1928 - January 26, 2023

Ed Schein passed away peacefully at home in Palo Alto, California on January 26th. He and his son Peter had just finished a productive afternoon of work with organization development colleagues. He passed without illness or suffering, as he had always hoped he would. He was 94.

Edgar Henry Schein was born in Zurich Switzerland in 1928 to Marcel Schein and Hilde Schonbeck, both physicists. His childhood was spent in Prague, Odessa and Zurich before coming to America at age ten where his father became a professor in the University of Chicago Department of Physics. Ed cherished his childhood in Hyde Park with his friends playing sports, cards and chess. His undergraduate education began at University of Chicago, where he earned a BPhil, followed by a BA and an MA in social psychology at Stanford University. He went on to get his PhD in social psychology from the Harvard University School of Social Relations. He also joined the U.S. Army as a Captain charged with research on Chinese handling of POWs following the Korean War resulting in his first book, Coercive Persuasion (1961). His time with subjects at Walter Reed Army Medical Center also coincidentally brought him to Mary Lodmell, the love of his life, mother of his children and life partner until her passing in 2008.

Ed spent forty years as a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. He held the titles Society of Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Work and Organization Studies. In 2011, he moved to Palo Alto, California, where he lived independently at “The Vi,” characteristically getting involved in on-site committees and offering his wisdom about organizations and relationships for the improvement of all residents’ lives. 

Ed always considered family his greatest legacy, followed closely by the numerous books and papers he authored as well as his consulting for individuals and organizations around the globe. Recognized as one of the founders of the field of organizational psychology, his most notable early contributions were in the fields of organizational development and culture, process consultation, and career development. His 1965 book Organizational Psychology came out in 3rd edition (1980) followed by his Organizational Culture and Leadership which had 5 editions between 1985 and 2017, Helping (2013), Humble Inquiry (2014) which won the business book of the year award from the Department of Leadership of the University of San Diego, Humble Consulting (2016). Many of his recent books emerged from his rich collaboration with his son Peter through their joint project Organizational Culture and Leadership Institute (OCLI.org). These include Humble Leadership (2018) which received a silver medal in the Nautilus Book Awards, the Corporate Culture Survival Guide, 3rd Edition (2019), and Humble Inquiry (2nd Ed. 2021). His two case study monographs were DEC is Dead; Long Live DEC, (2003) as well as a cultural analysis of Singapore's economic miracle (Strategic Pragmatism, 1996). Career Anchors Reimagined with John Van Maanen and Peter Schein (2023) and Humble Leadership with Peter Schein (2nd Ed. 2023) are soon to be published posthumously.

Among his awards, Ed 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 in Organization Development from the International OD Network. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the IEDC Bled School of Management in Slovenia.

Ed was an avid tennis player, nature-lover, opera enthusiast and landscape sketcher. In the 1960s his family summered lakeside in Bryant Pond, Maine while leading early groups at the National Training Labs (NTL). Later, he gathered his family in Truro, MA for over twenty summers and taught at the Cape Cod Institute. Ever engaged, he devoted much of his time to advocacy around global warming in recent years, eventually co-organizing a collection of invited essays, Social Scientists Confronting Global Crises (Jean Bartunek, ed. 2022).

Ed is survived by his daughters Louisa Schein (Ernie Renda), Liz Krengel (Wally), and his son /business partner Peter Schein (Jamie). Ed was also blessed with seven grandchildren - Alex, Peter and Oliver Krengel; Sophia and Ernesto Renda; and Annie and Stephanie Schein - as well as three great grandsons Logan, Caius and William Edgar.

Ed treasured and encouraged cultivating uniquely personal relationships within both work and family circles, including with his seven grandchildren as they became adults. We will dearly miss his warm and curious inquiry, his penchant for learning, and his spirit for helping.

In lieu of flowers, 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/), Environmental Defense Fund (https://www.edf.org/), or other environmental organizations.

Ed's family will hold a private memorial this spring after he is interred at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA.