Tribute to L. L. Waters
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In Memoriam
Long-time members of the American Society of Transportation and Logistics and readers of the Transportation Journalwere saddened by news of the death of Dr. L. L. Waters at age 99 on September 8, 2012. To us, the sense of loss struck by Dr. Waters’ passing was sharpened by our decades-long direct acquaintance with him as a professor, a trusted and caring provider of sage counsel, and a friend.
Before going further, we need to explain that the initials “L. L.” stand for “Lawrence Leslie.” Friends and colleagues commonly addressed him informally as “Les.” Infrequently, he would be identified formally in print as “L. Leslie Waters.” In virtually all other instances, ranging from bylines on published articles to title pages in books and entries on signatory pages and business cards, “L. L. Waters” was imprinted.
Transportation was Dr. Waters’ primary area of focus during his service between 1948 and 1978 as a faculty member in the School of Business at Indiana University (IU). However, his teaching and research interests and expertise reached across much if not most of the wider sphere of business and economic subject matter. One manifestation of this was his teaching of business policy, the cross-functional capstone course for MBA students. As for his published research, the books, monographs, and articles that he authored and coauthored over the course of his career covered topics involving every mode of transport and extended beyond to migratory labor, manufacturing, trade barriers, executive compensation, taxation, and business management case problems. In essence, he was a true “boundary spanner” before the term achieved popular use. Current space prohibits unabridged recitation of Dr. Waters’ professional biography. However, a sampling of additional specimens of the breadth of his work is in order. [End Page 1]
As a business school faculty member at the University of Kansas between 1939 and 1948, Dr. Waters rose to full professor, chairman of the Finance Department, and director of the Bureau of Business Research. Overlapping this was performance of economic research for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Company, along with initiation of work on a comprehensive book-length business history of the Santa Fe, published in 1950. It thus is not surprising that Dr. Waters’ title upon retirement from IU in 1978 was University Professor Emeritus of Transportation and Business History. During his service at IU, Dr. Waters inspired and directed or codirected several doctoral student research projects that culminated in published business histories of motor and rail transport firms.
While on a sabbatical leave from IU in England in 1954, Dr. Waters performed research on both rail and highway subjects. This marked the start of what became numerous professional academic and business contacts and friendships in England, other European countries, and elsewhere. It also reflected Dr. Waters’ already existing interest in international business and economic subject matter.
Dr. Waters believed very strongly that business professors should leaven their focus on theoretical knowledge with a substantive grasp of the practical aspects of business firm operations and of conditions and actions in the economic and political environments within which business must be conducted. We witnessed and accepted this belief as students in his classes, and had it reinforced during our turns as his graduate assistant. One also finds it reflected in the “application to real-world” thrust of his own publications, and in efforts he took to enable other educators to bolster their understanding of companies’ inner workings. One example that stands out in memory occurred during his tenure as a member of the board of directors of a major motor-freight carrier, when he persuaded the company to devote resources to the conduct of an expense-paid visitation program for transportation and logistics professors.
As chairman of the Transportation Department at IU, Dr. Waters was not a hands-on micromanager. He had performance standards and objectives in mind, but inspired faculty members and students alike to use their own initiative in aiming high and working hard to achieve their self-set goals. He worked diligently to provide the financial and material resources necessary for...
