UpDate - Vol. 11, No. 27, Page 1
April 16, 1992
Chap Tyler donates $2 million for business programs, building

     Operating under the philosophy of "putting his money where his
mouth is," Chaplin Tyler of Hockessin decided to do something about
his long-term interest in business education in this country. That
something is a $2 million gift to the University of Delaware to be
used in its College of Business and Economics.
     And the bottom line for this decision was simple. "At my advanced
age, I can drop dead any minute," Tyler, 94, said. "And if I did,
Uncle Sam would step in and take 50 cents, at the minimum, of every
dollar that I left that otherwise wasn't disposed. Now that's an
incentive.
     "With the record of the personal banking in the House of
Representatives, would you rather have the Congress spending this
money, or would you rather have the University, under Dr. (David)
Roselle and Dean (Kenneth) Biederman, spending it? That isn't even
debatable in my mind."
     University President David P. Roselle announced the undebatable
gift at a media conference April 9, calling Tyler "a distinguished
Delawarean" and "a long-time friend of the campus." Also speaking was
Biederman, dean of the College of Business and Economics.
     A retired senior member of the Development Department at the Du
Pont Co., Tyler was a lecturer in the University's Department of
Chemical Engineering from 1946-49. Roselle said he has given several
gifts to the University over the years, and this support has been
"much appreciated but it really pales when compared to Chap's current
generosity."
     Tyler's gift will be applied in two ways, Roselle said. Half will
go into a building fund for a new facility to relieve the overcrowding
of Purnell Hall, home of the College of Business and Economics. At
this time, the favored site for this building, which is still in the
early planning stages, is at the corner of Orchard Road and Amstel
Avenue, across the street from Purnell.
     The second million will create an endowment to support
outstanding faculty and students in the college. "Over the next seven
or eight years, as interest from Mr. Tyler's gift grows, we will name
five Chaplin Tyler Professors of Business and Economics," Roselle
said. The first Chaplin Tyler Professor will be named in the near
future.
     The endowment also will support select graduate students as Tyler
Fellows.
     Roselle concluded his remarks with an anonymous saying that he
said particularly fit the occasion: "Money is never so honored as when
it is used to educate the young."
     "We thank you, Chap, for helping us do that. We thank you from
the bottoms of our hearts," Roselle said.
     Describing his interest in higher education for business as a
30-year hobby, Tyler noted that the number of MBAs conferred in this
country in 1960 was around 4,000, and by 1990, that number increased
to more than 70,000. "I don't think that sort of growth has been
duplicated anywhere in higher education," Tyler said, adding that it
means that every 15 minutes there are "two newly minted MBAs."
     But, despite this growth, there are concerns, he said, quoting
the dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School
of Management, who said, "If our business schools are doing so well,
why are our American companies doing so badly?"
     "The big question is, 'What do we do about this situation?'
Here's a great majority of business schools saying that they aren't
doing the right thing or in the right way," Tyler said.
     Over the course of several discussions with Biederman, Tyler said
they discussed how business education might be shaped in the future.
     "We tried to compose...what might be termed a text for the future
of higher education in business. And that text reads something like
this: What American business needs to do is to offer products and
services that are globally competitive as to economy, quality and
safety," he said.
     This new thrust will rely less on "the frills and endless
electives and concentrations and try to get back to fundamentals,"
Tyler said. "In other words, what does it take to train people who
aspire to have a life in business and industry, whether as a manager
or as a profession?" He also said instruction needs to move away from
lecture presentations to an active form of instruction.
     Delaware should build on its position as the First State, Tyler
said, and do another job of pioneering, this time through the
University's College of Business and Economics.
     "We have to be able to get our students to where they not only
know and understand what is necessary for success in business in the
future and to keep America competitive-and in some cases make it
competitive again, but understand the technology and the methodology
of communicating that," Biederman said. "And so, our job is to be
responsive to Mr. Tyler's challenge, and it is our intent to do so."
     Biederman thanked Mr. and Mrs. Tyler "for their generosity, for
their support and even more so their encouragement and their direction
and their challenge to us, because America needs business schools, and
business schools have a job and a responsibility to America and
American business."
     Tyler, who lives in Hockessin, received bachelor's degrees from
Boston University and Northeastern University and a master's degree in
chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He also holds an honorary doctorate from Northeastern.
     The author of numerous publications, he has authored or
co-authored books on chemical engineering economics and innovation
management.
     A 50-year emeritus member of both the American Chemical Society
and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, he received the
Modern Pioneer Award on the occasion of the U.S. Patent Office
centennial. In 1940, he was made an honorary member of the Tau Beta Pi
engineering honorary at the University of Delaware.