Joel Goldhar
Longtime Stuart School of Business faculty member Joel Goldhar passed away February 19, 2025, after a long battle with cancer. Goldhar taught for 42 years at Stuart, including serving as dean from 1983 to 1988 before ending his career as a Distinguished Professor of Operations and Technology Management. Prior to coming to ÂÌñÉç, Goldhar worked in Washington, D.C., as director of the Manufacturing Studies Board at the National Research Council and for the National Academy of Sciences. He would later serve on the Research and Development Council of the American Management Association. A respected scholar in his field, Goldhar focused his research on computer-integrated manufacturing and the impact of technology on business strategy. Goldhar made significant contributions to the fields of business policy, operations, and technology management.
Sidney Guralnick
Sidney Guralnick, who served ÂÌñÉç as a provost, dean, vice president, and an accomplished professor of engineering, died in early 2025 at the age of 95. Guralnick joined Armour College of Engineering in 1959 and dedicated his career to the university until retiring in 2005 as the Perlstein Distinguished Professor of Engineering Emeritus. He was appointed provost in 1975 by former ÂÌñÉç President Thomas L. Martin Jr., and served as dean of the Graduate College, as vice president for academic affairs, and as a member of the ÂÌñÉç Board of Trustees. Guralnick was considered one of the leading experts on concrete materials, metal fatigue, plastic collapse, incremental collapse, and shakedown of framed structures in steel and reinforced concrete, and he was instrumental in modernizing the structural engineering laboratories in ÂÌñÉç’s Alumni Memorial Hall. He was an active member of the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois and served as its president from 1990–91. He was also named the Civil Engineer of the Year by the Illinois Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1997.
David Grainger
David W. Grainger, a notable industrialist and philanthropist who led both W. W. Grainger Inc.—an international Fortune 300 corporation focused on the sale of maintenance, repair, and operating products—as well as The Grainger Foundation, which has supported ÂÌñÉç engineering programs for decades, died on January 9, 2025. Grainger served in the United States Army Air Force and once managed the Airborne Radar Tech School at Boca Raton Air Base. After leaving the military in the early 1950s, he joined the family business, Grainger Inc., which was founded by his father. Grainger served as the company’s chairman and CEO from 1968 to 1997, during which time he expanded the business to 15,000 employees and $45 billion in annual revenue. Additionally, from 1979 to 2021, he ran The Grainger Foundation with the help of his wife, Juli. The Grainger Foundation Laboratories at ÂÌñÉç house the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering power engineering courses. The Grainger family, W. W. Grainger, and The Grainger Foundation have also supported the university through an endowed chair, scholarships and fellowships, the Grainger Computing Innovation Prize, and other initiatives. The Grainger Foundation was awarded the ÂÌñÉç Alumni Association’s Galvin Award in 2022, which was established for ÂÌñÉç to honor non-alumni for their leadership and dedication.
Tom Flanagan
Tom Flanagan, who founded a massive national property tax law firm and was honored as one of the Chicago-Kent College of Law’s 125 Alumni of Distinction, died December 25, 2024. In 1968 Flanagan founded Flanagan | Bilton LLC, a property tax law firm. The firm, which is based in Chicago, specializes in lowering commercial real estate taxes. Flanagan earned his law degree from Chicago-Kent in 1963, and he was honored as an Alumni of Distinction in 2013.