I was shocked and very much saddened to learn that Bill Golomski
had passed away. I am sure that many others felt the same
way, for Bill had far-reaching influence and was a presence
in many people’s lives.
Bill was extremely influential throughout the field of quality
management for a long time. While I knew Bill for 14 years,
having met him in 1988, it is clear to me that I knew him
during only a small part of his career. For example, Bill
was president of ASQC in the late 1960s, about 20 years before
I even met him.
Bill’s resume is, of course, extremely impressive. Throughout
his career he published more than 100 papers and several books,
and won numerous awards. I am not going to recite his accomplishments
here. Frankly, this list, while fantastic, does not capture
Bill’s real influence or character. Rather, here, I will
reminisce a little about what I knew about Bill and his influence
on me.
I met Bill 14 years ago when he began to teach quality management
courses at the Graduate School of Business at the University
of Chicago (where I was a new assistant professor of statistics).
At that time, a number of the statisticians there had become
interested in quality management, which, of course, was receiving
tremendous attention both in business and in the popular business
press.
Like most statisticians, my initial interest in quality management
was as an area of application of statistical methods. In fact,
I think that the interest of many statisticians in quality
was due largely to the enhanced status that the quality movement
gave statistical methods (and thus, statisticians) in the
business world. With a couple of notable exceptions, I think
this describes the motivation for the interest in quality
of most of the faculty members of the statistics group at
the Graduate School of Business at that time.
I no longer remember the details, but somehow I ended up sitting
in on an MBA course that Bill was teaching that was titled
something like “Strategic Quality Management.” For
me, this course was transforming, and literally altered the
course of my career. Suddenly I began to see quality management
not just as a technical discipline, but also as a fundamental
theme for organizing the firm and as a vast and rich topic
drawing from many fields such as sociology, anthropology,
and psychology, as well as the obvious technical ones. Bill’s
interdisciplinary knowledge was very broad and his thinking
about quality management was very advanced and highly innovative.
In fact, because of Bill I actually became more interested
in the organizational aspects of quality management than the
technical ones that related directly to my field of statistics.
When I met Bill he was also involved in the Malcolm Baldrige
National Quality Award. He was among the first panel of judges
in 1988 and shortly after became a member of the Board of
Overseers. I do not need to tell the readership of the Quality
Management Journal (QMJ) about the importance and influence
of the Baldrige Award. The Baldrige Award was another area
where Bill influenced me directly. He introduced me to the
award, encouraged me to become an examiner, and served as
my mentor. The early years of the Baldrige Award were fascinating
and exciting as the award and those involved struggled with
defining quality management in the context of American business.
Bill had profound influence not only on me personally in this
context, but also on the Baldrige Award process more broadly,
both through his formal role and through his influence on
many of the people involved in the award at that time.
Bill also founded QMJ and was its first editor. He was very
interested in the development of quality management as a legitimate
field (including legitimate among first-rate academics). In
that context, Bill was very interested in stimulating high-quality
academic research on quality. To this end, he created QMJ
under the auspices of ASQC. While ASQC and others deserve
credit as well, I have the distinct impression that the creation
of QMJ was due to Bill. As the journal’s first editor,
Bill was very concerned about the quality and innovativeness
of the articles. To set the standard for the journal, and
in a true quality fashion, he would sacrifice schedule for
quality when necessary in the early issues. When I became
the second editor of QMJ, Bill continued to serve as my advisor
and mentor in dealing with the numerous issues that arise
with a young publication, and we routinely talked about the
research published in the journal. I am sure Bill was very
pleased and proud that the research journal he founded has
endured.
Bill was a walking history book about the development of quality
management in the United States. Whenever I wanted to find
out how something had really happened (or for that matter,
really was happening) in the development of quality, I would
ask Bill. He always knew. And time has proved to me that both
the history of the field that he recited to me and his interpretation
of events were extremely accurate.
I want to summarize by reiterating that Bill really was a
profound intellect in the field of quality management. I have
sometimes thought that when W. Edwards Deming spoke of “profound
knowledge,” well, Bill had it. He had an extremely rare
combination of broad theoretical knowledge that drew upon
diverse fields ranging from technical statistics to sociology,
extensive practical experience, historical perspective, and
a wide network that meant that he was “in the know.”
Talking to Bill about any aspect of quality was always fascinating
and he frequently brought into such discussions unexpected
perspectives from diverse fields. Bill had the ability to
have profound impact on the thinking of both academics and
people in industry. And more than just having the ability,
he actually had the impact.
In closing, I want to say that Bill was an extremely generous
mentor to me personally. He generously shared his knowledge
and experience, advised me concerning specific issues and
situations, steered me to many of the most interesting opportunities
of my career, and always found time. He was a friend. Bill
was a generous man, and I am sure there are many others for
whom he was also an important mentor. For me, Bill was always
there to turn to for counsel, perspective, and advice and
in this sense he was always a presence for me throughout my
career. I still feel his presence. I had much more to learn
from Bill, much more that I expected to have a chance to learn
from him. I believe that he had much more to contribute to
the field of quality management as a whole. We have all suffered
a great loss.
George Easton
Past Editor,
Quality Management Journal
Emory University
I knew, and was friendly with, Bill Golomski for more than
45 years. It started in the 1950s when we both worked for
Oscar Mayer & Company in Madison, Wis. Bill was director
of operations research, while I served as statistical analyst
in the corporate product (quality) control department. He
left Oscar Mayer to become vice president of another meat
processing company, John Morrell and Company, and subsequently
assumed management positions with Schlitz Brewing Company,
H. J. Mayer & Sons Company, Golden Sun Feeds Company,
and Detroit Coca-Cola Bottling Company, all before forming
his own consulting company.
Bill was always actively involved in ASQC and held many important
positions. In 1957 he served as chairman of the Milwaukee
Section. During 1966-1967, after serving in various capacities
for ASQC, he became its national president and then its board
chairman. Bill received many well-earned and coveted honors
during his long career, including being named an Honorary
Member and Fellow of ASQ; winning ASQ’s Edwards Medal
and Grant Award; being named a Fellow and Life Member of the
American Statistical Association; being Chief of Choctaw and
Seminole Nations; and many others. Of special significance
was his election to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering.
His citation for the latter reads: “For contributions
in integrating customer-centered quality and engineering design.”
Bill was a very busy person. He was in great demand as a speaker
worldwide because his message was always clear, concise, and
relevant to his audiences. He was a prolific writer, having
authored hundreds of articles and several books. He was an
outstanding teacher as well, especially in the fields of statistical
applications and quality management. Bill was involved in
so many areas of interest that he could converse intelligently
on any subject and be a master of all of them. Through his
heavy schedule of travel, consulting, teaching, speaking,
and involvement, he retained a fine sense of humor.
Personally, I learned many things from Bill as I pursued my
own career. He was always willing to share his knowledge and
information and offer priceless advice as a professional and
personal friend. Bill will be sorely missed and always remembered.
Hy Pitt
ASQ Fellow
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
