William
Pope
Class of 1990
Background:
William C. Pope was born in 1912 in Worcester, Massachusetts,
USA. He graduated from Northeastern University in Boston with
an Industrial Engineering degree.
Professional
Experience:
Mr. Pope began his career in 1937 as a safety engineer with
Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. Just before World War II,
he moved to the U.S. Department of Labor where he trained
state safety inspectors. Mr. Pope served in the U.S. Navy
beginning in 1943, and headed the repair department on a battle-damage
repair ship berthed at Eniwetok Atoll. He retired from the
Navy as a Lt. Commander. Later, as a safety law consultant
with the U.S. Department of State, he was assigned to work
with Latin American governments. In 1954 he represented the
United States at the International Labor Organization safety
convention in Geneva, Switzerland. Joining the U.S. Department
of the Interior in 1948, Mr. Pope managed its safety affairs
until retiring in 1972 as director, Office of Safety Management.
Career
Highlights:
Mr. Pope was a nationally recognized expert on management
and loss prevention. An unorthodox and independent supporter
of change in management's understanding of and approach to
accident prevention, he perceived the profession as one needed
for operational improvement rather than as a social welfare
program. As an in-demand lecturer, he spoke before safety
organizations and management groups throughout the world,
notably in Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland,
The Netherlands, and most Latin American countries.
As an
administrator with the U.S. Department of the Interior, he
researched and developed a data base of facts about operating
errors, managerial oversights and industrial mishaps linked
to problems of a management system rather than faults of the
individuals in it. He was cited by the Secretary of Labor
in 1966 for major contributions to management improvement
in government. In 1973 he received the Interior Award of Merit.
In the
consulting field, Mr. Pope was president of Safety Management,
Information Systems, Inc., a firm specializing in establishing
intra-management communication systems that supplied employee-generated
facts to functional executives for cost/benefit analysis and
decision-making improvements. He published a series of monographs
used as course material by industry, government, and educational
institutions worldwide. As president of William C. Pope Publishing,
his first textbook was Managing for Performance Perfection.
Mr. Pope
was one of the founders of the National Safety Management
Society. He was an active member of the Society's Board of
Directors/Governing Board. For many years he served as editor
of the Society's publications. He was made a Fellow of the
Society in May 1987. One of his significant accomplishments
in a broad career was the conception of "Project Minerva"
-- an approach bringing safety management instruction into
the business administration courses of colleges and universities.
