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John O'Sullivan Francis Sr.
MBA'55
There is an element of sweet sorrow in reminiscing about the past. There is also excited anticipation when one considers the past as the beginning.
As I accepted the College of Business Administration’s Distinguished Alumni Award in June, a timeless quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest popped out of my mouth: “What’s past is prologue.” Somehow, I intuitively knew I’m just beginning again.
I started reflecting on where, indeed, past ends and prologue begins. I consulted Webster to make sure I had “prologue” in the right Shakespearean context: “Part of a Greek play preceding the entrance of the chorus . . . The preface or introduction to a literary work . . . An introductory or preceding event or development. . . .”
The third definition fit my explorations, and I found myself developing, again relying on Shakespearean terms, a brief soliloquy on the pasts and prologues of a Northeastern MBA of color, circa 1950.
For many years, my MBA has been a stabilizing element in my life of re-beginnings. My past has also contained some vicissitudes related to the social system in which I operated: the movement from “colored” to “black,” segregation to integration, unequal opportunity to equal opportunity, voting restrictions to voting rights, and affirmative action to the current potpourri of cultural diversity. Every aspect of my past has affected the following prologues.
Prologue I: Looking for work as an MBA of color
My mother didn’t tell me about being black, but she knew my seeking employment would be a new beginning for me. I showed up on the doorsteps of Polaroid, Sylvania, Raytheon, Honeywell, IBM, and other companies with two degrees, one an MBA from Northeastern. Even with an enviable business education, I still pretty much hit a dead end in the business world.
Impact: My inability to find employment at a major corporation led me to consider a career in government or private entrepreneurship. The Managerial Control Series in the MBA program inspired me to choose the latter.
Prologue II: Going into private entrepreneurship
Past caught up with prologue when I met former Navy deep-sea diver John Light, of Waltham, Massachusetts, who was looking to continue his underwater interests. Thanks to a Wall Street Journal article on the emerging “skin-diving craze,” in 1955 we cofounded Light’s Underwater Sports and Deep Diving Company, Inc. Light’s Underwater was the first scuba-diving company in the United States to focus on the new Jacques Cousteau–Émile Gagnon invention, the aqualung. We outfitted a Coast Guard–approved diving vessel and opened the first aqualung and skin-diving shop in Hyannis, providing guided underwater tours for diving enthusiasts.
Impact: Light’s Underwater received national recognition when we participated in a successful effort to photograph the sunken Andrea Doria, a luxury liner that collided with the Stockholm off Nantucket Island in 1956. The team included Cousteau, Louis Malle (then Cousteau’s underwater photographer, later a renowned film director), and diver Frederick Dumas.
Prologue III: Entering the health-care research and management field
Post–Andrea Doria, a new prologue—my graduate thesis in managerial statistics—emerged and led me to an appointment as a biostatistician at the U.S. Public Health Service, pursuing research on statistical and laboratory standards that would ensure precision and accuracy in controlling diabetes, arthritis, and kidney disease.
Impact: The major articles I co-authored in the New England Journal of Medicine, Diabetes, Medical Care, Public Health Reports, and other publications attracted a lot of attention. And the fact that I had dual experience in both health and business management would have a profound impact on my next appointment.
Prologue IV: Joining the Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget
An NBC documentary called Who Shall Live prompted a White House conference on kidney disease. A study I had initiated that used cost-benefit analysis to look at the economic costs of kidney disease provided a basis for the deliberations. I became first a liaison between the Public Health Service and the OMB, and later a senior health analyst at the OMB. (During my OMB interview, in 1966, I was actually asked what an MBA degree was.)
Impact: Landmark studies on the economic costs of kidney disease and dialysis centers were initiated. These were instrumental in the classification of end-stage renal disease as a “catastrophic illness” in the Social Security Amendments of 1972, which led to the opening of lifesaving community dialysis centers throughout the United States.
Future prologues: More beginnings
The pattern suggested here may give other Northeastern graduates a new way of seeing both the benefits of their practice-oriented education and their accomplishments and contributions.
Parting with the past may be sweet sorrow, but the excitement is in the new beginnings.
John O’Sullivan Francis Sr. is a member of the Alumni Association’s board of directors and a past recipient of the University Outstanding Alumni Award and the College of Business Administration’s Distinguished Service Award.