Administrative/Biographical History
Bernard Louis ("Bun") Gladieux was born in Toledo, Ohio, to Victor Modest and Anna Cook Gladieux on April, 12, 1907. He received an A.B. degree from Oberlin College in 1930. In 1943 he received the M.S. degree in public administration from Syracuse University, and in 1985 Oberlin College conferred on him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
Bernard Gladieux's father, Victor Modest Gladieux, worked for the Toledo Water Department. The family lived in a lower middle class neighborhood where most children left school after the eighth grade. Higher education was practically unheard of, and the Gladieux family was unique with all four sons attending college.
As a boy, Bernard Gladieux was more interested in sports than school and was a poor scholar during his first years of high school. In his third year, however, he became involved in Hi-Y, the high school branch of the Y.M.C.A., and the people he met there encouraged him in his studies. In particular, Reverend Elliott F. Talmadge, an Episcopalian minister whom Gladieux met through a Hi-Y career conference, took an interest in Gladieux and ultimately helped pay for Gladieux's first year at Oberlin College.
While a student at Oberlin College, Gladieux majored in American History and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1930. His extra-curricular activities included Y.M.C.A., football, and track, and he worked in the Faculty Club and the Astronomy Department. In the summer of 1929, he traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, on a fellowship to study at the Zimmern School of International Studies and attend League of Nations sessions.
Gladieux met his future wife, Persis Emma Skilliter (1908-91), while they were in high school together. She attended the Oberlin Kindergarten Training School and graduated in 1930. Following their marriage on June 19, 1930, the couple spent four years in Tokyo, Japan, where they were teachers in the American School of Japan.
Gladieux went on to became a key government official in the nation's mobilization for World War II, management consultant, and widely respected leader in public administration. His career in public service spanned six decades and all levels of government, both in the U.S. and abroad. He served in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations in Washington and as an advisor on government organization to the Eisenhower and Carter administrations.
During World War II, he served in the United States Bureau of the Budget from 1939 to 1942 before becoming administrative assistant to the chairman of the War Production Board, 1943-44. In 1944-45 he was Deputy Director of Operations with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). From 1945 to 1950, he served as Executive Assistant to three Secretaries of Commerce, Henry Wallace, W. Averell Harriman, and Charles W. Sawyer.
In 1950, Gladieux left the federal government for the Ford Foundation in New York City. As assistant to the president and the chief administrator in the New York office, he played a major role in shaping the Foundation's management and future direction.
In 1955, he entered the field of management consulting. He was on the staff of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, and was a partner in the firm from 1957 to 1967. In 1967 he co-founded the management consulting firm of Knight & Gladieux. He remained active in this firm (which became Knight, Gladieux & Smith in 1969) until 1974.
In his consulting career, Bernard Gladieux sought to help repair and restore organizations to make them work more effectively. In all, he undertook more than 300 consulting assignments for federal agencies, 12 state governments, more than 30 local governments, and a wide array of non-profit institutions, international organizations and the countries of India, Pakistan, Ecuador, Thailand, The Republic of the Philippines, Iran and Kuwait.
Throughout his career he was active in volunteer organizations devoted to strengthening public and community service. In 1967 he became a founding member of the National Academy of Public Administration. His leadership and volunteer efforts helped build the National Academy's programs of professional development and research. He remained an active participant in the Academy until 1994.
Among other volunteer activities, he served as Chairman of the National Civil Service League, 1960-74; Member, Board of Directors and Vice President, YMCA of Greater New York,1960-70; Trustee, Oberlin College, 1964-57; Member, panel on government, Committee for Economic Development; incorporator, Training Resources for Youth, Inc; and Chairman, Visiting Committee on the Public Affairs Curriculum, Columbia University.
Mr. and Mrs. Gladieux had four sons, Bernard Louis, Jr. (b. 1937), Russell Victor (b. 1940), Lawrence Edward (b. 1943; A.B. 1965), and Jay Arthur (b. 1947).
Bernard Gladieux moved from Alexandria, Virginia, to Kendal-at-Oberlin, in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1993. He died in Oberlin on May 18, 1997.
SOURCES:
New York Times obituary, May 22, 1997
Washington Post obituary, May 20, 1997
Unidentified obituary in student folder (RG28)
Author: Archives staff Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
