Professor Emeritus Jean Boddewyn

January 21, 2022

Professor Nermin Eyuboglu, Chair of the Allen G. Aaronson Department of Marketing and International Business and Professor Myung-Soo Lee, Director of the Weissman Center for International Business, would like to share the sad news of the recent passing of Professor Emeritus Jean Boddewyn.

The funeral will be tomorrow, Saturday, January 22, 2022. Visitation starts at 1:00 pm in The Church of St Francis of Assisi located at 135 West 31st Street between 6th and 7th Avenues in Manhattan. There will be a eulogy at around 1:30 pm and a funeral mass at 2:00 pm. It is a very large church, and the service will be in the upper chapel. Masks must be worn at the church; no other Covid precautions are required.

The following obituary is based on one written by Professor Boddewyn’s wife, Marilyn Boddewyn.

 Jean J. Boddewyn died on January 10, 2022 at the age of 92. He had been a Professor of International Business at Baruch College and Coordinator of the International Business Program from 1973 to 2006 when he retired as Professor Emeritus.

He was born on February 3, 1929 in Brussels, Belgium. He grew up in Brussels under German Occupation in WWII. After graduating from the University of Louvain, Belgium, he came to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar in 1951, earning an MBA at University of Portland (Beta Gamma Sigma) in Portland, Oregon. He returned to Belgium but came back to the United States shortly thereafter and briefly worked in industry.

He started an academic career and took a full-time position at the University of Portland (1957-1964). He earned his Ph.D. in Management, Marketing and Business and its Environment at the University of Washington in 1964. Upon graduation, he was recruited by New York University’s Graduate School of Business Administration to help create an International Business Program. A full Professor at NYU, he later joined Baruch College of the City University of New York in 1973, where he taught International Business and International Business Strategy to some 5,000 students while serving as Coordinator of the International-Business Program. During his research on advertising regulation, he met George Weissman, then CEO of Philip Morris, Inc. As a result of this relationship, Mr. Weissman gave funds to Baruch College, his alma mater, to create the Weissman Center for International Business at Baruch.

Jean was the recipient of the Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Scholarship at Baruch in 1994 and received the 2002 Academy of Management’s Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his creating and serving as Founding Editor of International Studies of Management & Organization (ISMO) from 1971-2006. He was a Fellow of the Academy of Management (1974), Academy of International Business (1980), and the International Academy of Management (1984).

He was the author, co-author, editor or translator of 33 books and reports, plus more than one hundred articles and monographs on international business management, comparative management and marketing, foreign divestment, international business-government relations and public affairs, market-entry modes, reciprocity as a governance mode, and the regulation and self-regulation of advertising worldwide.

He owned successively three Dachshunds (Maximilian Smart, Leo Belgicus and Beau) to which he was deeply attached. He was a gifted ballroom dancer, excellent cook, raconteur and joke teller, interior and fashion design enthusiast (he created the concept of “Breaking the Square,” and advised shoppers to be sure to look at themselves from the back in a mirror to be sure the fit was flattering). He loved history and was an avid reader.

Mostly, he loved his wife of 42 years, Marilyn, as well as his children (Michèle, Noëlle, and Marc) from a previous marriage to Luella Adams (deceased), grandchildren (Madeleine, Adrienne, Matthew and Emily), and their partners (Michael Ankuda, Julia Boddewyn, and Brooks Hurd).

For any additional information, please contact Myung-Soo Lee at 646-552-6892 or email him at Myung-Soo.Lee@baruch.cuny.edu.