Former Pitt business school dean was expert on ethics

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

William Frederick, former dean of the University of Pittsburgh business school, had been retired for nearly a decade when he agreed to oversee one last doctoral student in the early 2000s.

An aspiring business academic had persuaded Mr. Frederick to guide him through his dissertation on the evolutionary psychology of business ethics, a field Mr. Frederick helped pioneer.

But what quickly became clear in the manuscriptstacked office of the veteran professor’s Squirrel Hill home: Mr. Frederick remained as committed to his field — and to teaching — as he had ever been, said David Wasieleski, the former student.

“Wheneveryou were with him, you were always the most important person,” said Mr. Wasieleski, now chair of the managing and marketing department at Duquesne University. “The world seemed bigger when Bill was in the room.”

Mr. Frederick, whose research focused on the social and ethical dimensions of business corporations, died Friday from age-related health problems. He was 92.

Mr. Frederick grew up in Mena, Ark., not far from the Oklahoma border. In the later years of World War II, he served in the U.S. Army as a clerk in a medical unit in Belgium, said his wife Mildred S. Myers, a professor emerita at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. His time overseas broadened his understanding of the world, she said.

“The experience of traveling to Europe took the boy out of Arkansas and brought the world to him,” she said. “What he saw really opened his eyes up.”

When Mr. Frederick returned home, he began taking classes at the local junior college, where he met an economics professor who set the course for his whole career. The professor worked in a field known as institutional economics, which explored the role institutions play in shaping economic behavior.

Mr. Frederick followed the professor to the University of Texas-Austin, where he earned bachelor and doctoral degrees in economics and anthropology, Ms. Myers said.

“In a sense, he was somebody who was more interested in the big picture than the individual,” she said.

Mr. Frederick later taught at Tampa University, the University of Florida and Kansas State University, where he also served as dean of the business school, Ms. Myers said.

Jim Weber, professor of business and ethics management at Duquesne University’s Palumbo Donahue School of Business, had known Mr. Frederick since his days as a student in the early 1980s and described him as a “giant in the field.”

“I was drawn to him because he wanted to change the world,” Mr. Weber said. “I think that was a goal of his. It wasn’t about the minutiae of classes or the number of articles he published.”

But Mr. Frederick published plenty over his career. He wrote numerous books, including co-authoring “Business and Society,” a leading textbook in the field.

He also worked as a consultant to foundations and governments, studying management education around the globe, Ms. Myers said.

Tom Petzinger Jr., a former Wall Street Journal reporter and columnist, met Mr. Frederick after the scholar responded to a piece he had written related to his work. After exchanging emails, the men realized they lived in the same neighborhood, igniting a decadeslong friendship, Mr. Petzinger said

“It’s not uncommon to develop a friendship with a source or a subject, but Bill was a scholarly guru to me,” he said. “He was such a charming and delightful person that he was irresistible as a friend.”

Outside of work, Mr. Frederick loved classical music, photography and attending the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which he did until his final days, Ms. Myers said.

When Mr. Frederick first came to Pittsburgh in the 1960s, he grew fond of photographing the stained glass displayed in churches and homes throughout the city, Ms. Myers said.

The couple first met in the 1970s after she had taken a job at the University of Pittsburgh business school. Both had been previously married, and Ms. Myers recognized his name.

“This is such a Pittsburgh story,” Ms. Myers said. “I told him, ‘Your name is on my previous husband’s diploma.’ It was a rather strange introduction.”

In his later years, Mr. Frederick continued to publish articles and book reviews and enjoyed mentoring students around the world through email conversation, Ms. Myers said.

Mr. Wasieleski said he will always remember working through problems on the whiteboard in Mr. Frederick’s home office in his days as a doctoral student.

“Some of the best professional moments of my life were in that room, drawing on that whiteboard,” he said. “Thinking with him was ultimate pleasure for me.”

Mr. Frederick had a way of challenging him to work through problems and arrive at his own conclusions, Mr. Wasieleski said — a legacy he hopes to carry on through his own students.

“I emphasize the loving care he had for his students,” Mr. Wasieleski said of his ex-professor and friend.

“It wasn’t just about getting a project done. He cared about the person behind the project.”

A memorial gathering will be scheduled at a future date, Ms. Myers said.