Henry Robinson Towne Lecture
| ASME Unit: | Management Division (MGMT) |
| Date Established: | 1925 |
| Achievement: | For paper written in the field of Management, economics or business. |
| Limitations: | |
| Nomination Deadline: | 8/1 |
| Form of Award: | Certificate |
| Frequency of Award: | Annual |
| Administrative: | |
| Level of Award: | Division |
| Selected By: | |
| Selecting Process: | |
| Funding: | |
| Date Created: | 11/10/2008 |
| Date Modified: | 11/19/2009 |
| Contact Name: | |
| Contact Email: | |
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Henry Robinson Towne Lecture Recipients
| 1925 | THE HONORABLE HERBERT HOOVER, (then Secretary of Commerce). Title: The Economic Value of Research in Pure Science. |
| 1926 | DAVIS RICH DEWEY, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Title: The Credit Factor in the Structure of Industry. |
| 1927 | T.S. ADAMS, Professor of Political Economy, Yale University; President, American Economic Association. Title: The Relationship Between Industry and Taxation An Economist's Views of a Sound Program for American Business in the Field of Taxation. |
| 1931 | W.B. DONHAM, Dean, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University Title: The Temporary Emergency and Twenty Year Plan. |
| 1932 | A. W. ROBERTSON, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. Title: The Scientific Approach to Human Affairs. |
| 1933 | DAVID CUSHMAN COYLE, Consulting Engineer, New York, New York. Title: High Productivity and the Distribution Problem |
| 1934 | DEXTER S. KIMBALL, Past President ASME; Dean, College of Engineering, Cornell University. Title: Prophets and Panaceas. |
| 1935 | RALPH E. FLANDERS, Past President ASME; President, Jones and Lamson Machine Company, Springfield, Vermont. Title: New Pioneers on a New Frontier. |
| 1936 | JAMES ROWLAND ANGELL, President, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Title: Achievements of Westinghouse as Factors in our Modern Life. |
| 1937 | EARNEST A. HOOTON, Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University; Curator, Peabody Museum. Title: The Simian Basis of Human Mechanics, Or Ape to Engineer. |
| 1938 | GERARD SWOPE, President, General Electric Company, New York, New York. Title: Mechanical Engineering Men, Materials and Methods. |
| 1946 | CHARLES E. WILSON, President, General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Michigan. Title: The Great Delusion Where Marx Went Wrong. |
| 1948 | H.B. MAYNARD, President, Methods Engineering Council, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Title: The Role of Scientific Management in World Recovery. |
| 1949 | FREDERICK S. BLACKALL, JR., President and Treasurer, Taft Pierce Manufacturing Company, Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Title: The Obligation of Management to Provide Leadership. |
| 1950 | A.W. ROBERTSON, Chairman of the Board, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Title: The Individual and Free Enterprise |
| 1953 | PHILIP M. McKENNA, President, Kennametal, Inc. Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Title: Economics and the Engineer. |
| 1955 | CROSBY FIELD, President, Flakice Corporation, Brooklyn, New York. Title: The Greatest Achievement of the Engineer in Commerce and Industry. |
| 1958 | WALTER E. BOVERI, Chairman of the Board, Brown Boveri Company Ltd., Baden, Switzerland. Title: Man's Conflict with Technical Progress. |
| 1959 | JAMES M. GAVIN, Executive Vice President, Arthur D. Little, Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts. Title: The Challenge of the Sixties |
| 1960 | LYNDALL F. URWICK, Chairman, Urwick Orr and Partners, Ltd. London, England. Title: Engineers in Management Past and Future.l |
| 1961 | WALTER SCOTT, Governing Director, W.D. Scott Company Pty., Ltd., North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Title: The Greatest Challenge. |
| 1962 | HAROLD F. SMIDDY, President, Academy of Management, New York, New York. Title: The Professional in the Business Corporation. |
| 1963 | LOUIS E. NEWMAN, President, Smithcraft Corporation, Chelsea, Massachusetts. Title: Managing in a Changing World. |
| 1964 | DAVID PACKARD, Chairman of the Board, Hewlett Packard Company, Palo Alto, California. Title: Management's Expanding Responsibilities. |
| 1965 | GEORGE E. KECK, President, United Airlines, O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. Title: Engineering's Relation to Business Objectives. |
| 1966 | ALBERT G. MUMMA, Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy (Retired), Executive Vice President, Worthington Corp., Harrison, New Jersey. Title: For the Engineer, The Past is Prologue. |
| 1967 | DONALD C. BURNHAM, President, Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Title: Productivity Key to Progress. |
| 1968 | J. ERIK JONSSON, Mayor of Dallas, Dallas, Texas; Chairman of the Board, Texas Instruments, Inc. Title: Avalanche: The Cities and the Seventies. |
| 1969 | ED REINECKE, Lieutenant Governor, State of California. Title: Public Responsibility of Engineers. |
| 1970 | PETER F. DRUCKER, Professor, New York University. Title: The Price of Success Management Leadership in a Pluralistic Society. Title: Management A Universal Concept. |
| 1971 | JAMES L. HAYES, President, American Management Association, New York, New York. |
| 1972 | JACOB RABINOW, Chief Officer of Invention and Innovation, National Bureau of Standards, Washington, DC. Title: The Art and Economics of Invention. |
| 1973 | LESTER R. BITTEL, Director, Academy Hall, Inc. Strasburg, Virginia. Title: From Work Measurement to Work Management; From Wage Incentives to Work Itself. |
| 1974 | JAY W. FORRESTER, Professor of Industrial Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Title: The Need to Look Ahead. |
| 1975 | ROBERT C. SEAMANS, JR., United States Energy Research and Development Administration, Washington, DC. Title: Latest Development in Energy Research and Development. |
| 1976 | WILLARD F. ROCKWELL, JR., Chairman of the Board of Rockwell International Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Title: The Alchemists; Fear and Wonderment. |
| 1977 | EDGAR B. SPEER, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, United States Steel Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Title: The Engineer and the Human Equation. |
| 1978 | D. ROBERT YARNELL, JR., President, Yarway Corporation, Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. Title: Can Managers Handle Freedom? |
| 1979 | FRANK A. LEE, President & Chief Executive Officer, Foster Wheeler Corporation,Livingston, New Jersey. Title: The Obsolescent Engineer. |
| 1980 | MARTIN ALLEN, Computervision Corp, Bedford, Massachusetts. Title: CAD/CAM and the Third Industrial Revolution. |
| 1981 | GEORGE R. JASNY, Union Carbide Corp., Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Title: Engineering for Energy and the Environment in the 1980's –A Return To Realism. |
| 1983 | WILLIAM C. MISSIMER, JR., Pratt & Whitney Group, East Hartford, Connecticut. Title: Design It to Make It. |
| 1984 | DOROTHY M. SIMON, Vice President, Research, AVCO Corporation, Greenwich, Connecticut. Title: Research and Development The Backbone of Competitive Strategy. |
| 1985 | JULES A. MIRABAL, President, Eaton Kenway, Salt Lake City, Utah. Title: Effective Materials Handling Another Key Factor in the Competitive Equation. |
| 1986 | DELBERT C. STALEY, President and Chief Executive Officer, NYNEX, New York, New York. Title: Management Philosophy and Expertise in Achieving Significant Success in the New Status of the New York Telephone Company. |
| 1989 | M. TRIBUS, Exergy Crop., Haywood, California. Title: Redefining Engineering Management in the Era of Quality Production. |
| 1990 | ALLEN F. RHODES, Past President ASME, President and C.E.O. of Gripper Inc., Houston, Texas. Title: The Engineering and Management Impact of the Global Company. |
| 1991 | ROBERT L. DORN, Chief Engineer, Cadillac Motor Car Division of General Motors. Title: The Cadillac Quality Management Story. |
| 1992 | JAMES K. BAKKEN, Former Sr. Vice President, Ford Motor Company. Title: The American Revolution-Total Quality Management. |
| 1993 | H. THOMAS JOHNSON, Retzlaff Professor of Quality Management, School of Business, Portland State University. Title: How Quality Organizational Learning and Wholistic Thinking Transforms Management Accounting. |
| 1994 | No Towne Lecture Presented at '94 ASME Winter Congress. It was moved to the National Design Show in March 1995. See Below. |
| 1995 | ROBERT W. HALL, Professor of Operations Management, Indiana University Graduate School of Business. Title: Qualitative Growth. |
| 1997 | RAYMOND VISKANTA, Purdue University. Title: Thermal Issues in Manufacturing and Materials Processing. |
| 1998 | C. MOW, Columbia University. Title: Structure of Scientific Revolution in Bioengineering: A Historical Prospective. |
| 1999 | ADRIAN BEJAN, Duke University. Title: Shape and Structure in Engineering and Nature: Contractual Theory. |
| 2002 | STEPHEN C. LEWIS, Ford Motor Company. Title: How to Instill Diverse Customer Focus into Future Engineers' Education Process. |
| 2003 | JOHN A. BRIGHTON, Ph.D., P.E., National Science Foundation Title: The Role of the National Science Foundation in Advancing the National Research and Education Agenda in Science and Engineering |
| 2004 | Susan H. Skemp ASME Fellow at the Office of Science and Technology Policy Executive Office of the President Past President, ASME 2002-2003 Title: Engineering and Public Policy: Focus on Engineering Workforce 2020 |