Legendary retail professor Salmon dies at 84

Walter J. Salmon, the distinguished Harvard Business School professor who influenced generations of retailers, has died at the age of 84.

Salmon, long one of the world’s leading experts on retailing, retail distribution, and marketing, who for more than 40 years influenced thousands of students, executives and other academics, was the school’s Stanley Roth Sr. Professor of Retailing Emeritus.

According to HBS professor Rajiv Lal, an authority on retailing who now holds the Roth chair, “Walter was a legend in our field. His knowledge was extensive, and his intuition was precise and always on the mark. It was not surprising that he served on the boards of many retail companies, and that his advice was much sought after. I do not know of any academic who was revered as much by the retail industry,” Lal observed. “For me personally, he was a mentor, colleague, and dear friend, without whose presence my career at HBS would not be as fulfilling. All that having been said, what I admired most about Walter was that he was the most wonderful human being I have known. He was a man of great compassion and kindness, who took great joy in helping whoever he could, however he could. We will all miss him greatly.”

Salmon was a readily recognizable figure on the HBS campus for decades, coming to campus regularly until near the end of his life to continue his work at the School’s Senior Faculty Center.

Beloved by students and colleagues alike, he was a mentor to legions of them over the years, including Tom Stemberg.“Walter Salmon played a huge role in shaping my career and advising me when I was about to start a new business, which turned out to be Staples,” Stemberg once commented.

Widely known for his ability to bridge business theory and practice, Salmon had a broad global view of retailing and an intimate knowledge of the strategies and key players in the industry. During his 41 years as an active member of the HBS faculty, he taught a wide variety of MBA courses in both the first- and second-year curricula, including the required first-year Marketing course and electives in retailing and consumer marketing as well as offerings in the Doctoral programs.

For a time, he was course head of first-year Marketing and head of the School’s Marketing Unit. Salmon’s research focused on matters such as trends in distribution, issues of organization and logistics, and retailing information systems. He also studied how to balance consumer interests in breadth of selection with their desire for low prices.

A prolific case writer, he authored or coauthored several hundred case studies, delving deeply into companies as diverse as L.L. Bean, Gap, Lowe’s, J.C. Penney, Nordstrom, Dayton Hudson, Talbot’s, Dillard’s, Stride Rite, Liz Claiborne, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Toro. Salmon said that he found the creation and use of new and interesting course material one of the most satisfying aspects of teaching, noting that the ideal case “generated heat and light, an explosion – and refinement -- of logical thinking.” He also authored or coauthored more than seven books, including Product Profitability Measurement and Merchandise Decisions, Strategic Retail Management, An Introduction to Retailing, and Problems in Marketing, and wrote myriad working papers, book chapters, and journal articles. In retirement, Salmon remained on the boards of Cumberland Farms and the MBL (formerly known as Marine Biological Laboratory) for a number of years.

During the latter part of his life, he also continued to do several retailing-related research and course development projects at the School, including a study of the evolution and future of American department stores and a case book for use in graduate instruction and company education programs. In these activities, he often collaborated with younger faculty interested in retailing. In addition, he worked on a study chronicling the plight of department stores from the end of World War II to the1990s. He was also involved with colleagues in the HBS Marketing Unit in examining the importance to consumers of selection in choosing between food stores.

Finally, he worked on the development of a case focusing on the impact of technology on the buying process in a large mass-merchandising company.