Professor John Dearden worked in the Finance and Accounting Area from August 1966 to November 1967.

Prof. Dearden was the Krannert Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School in Boston. He was born in Lancashire, England. His father was a weaver while his mother was employed as a spinner in the local textile mills. The family moved from England to the United States in 1924.

Prof. Dearden grew up in Western Massachusetts, USA. He received a Bachelor's Degree from the American International College in Springfield. He would attend classes during the day and work at night as a Business Equipment Operator. Prof. Dearden joined the US Navy in 1943 after acquiring American citizenship and was stationed in Philadelphia. Alongside his service with the Navy, he completed his MBA from the Wharton School in 1946. Later, he studied Economics as part of a Doctoral Programme at the University of Pennsylvania.

An authority on managerial accounting and a pioneer in the use of computers in business, Prof. Dearden joined the faculty at HBS in 1959 after a decade of work in the Finance Department at the Ford Motor Company.

Prof. Dearden served as a mentor to a number of HBS students. The creator of the first HBS course on information technology in 1962, he was one of the early visionaries who focused on the potential impact information technology and the special management challenges and opportunities it would pose.

During a leave of absence between 1966 and 1967, Prof. Dearden spent a year and a half in India. Here, he assisted IIMA in developing faculty, curriculum, and research programs in areas of control and management information systems.

Prof. Dearden was the recipient of several awards and accolades including the HBS’s Distinguished Service Award (1995); the Wharton Graduate School's Fiftieth Anniversary Gold Medal (1971) and an honorary Doctorate from the American International College.

He published 12 books over the course of his career. Prof. Dearden coauthored Management Control Systems (1965). He wrote more than 40 articles for academic and professional journals. He was also a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review.

At the time of his death, Prof. Dearden was survived by wife, Helen Marie Borden and children— John C, Thomas A, Rachel Rothstein and Ruth Anne Rieker along with four grandchildren.

Date of Birth: 19th November 1919

Date of Death: 9th January 2004