John F. Magee

Brief Biography

John F. Magee was of a generation of operations researchers that pioneered in bringing OR to the private, non-academic sector. He was born in Bangor, Maine to Marie and John H. Magee, a successful insurance broker and faculty member of the University of Maine. Looking to enter summer school at U of Maine, Magee took the College Board examination his junior year of high school. He also sent his test scores to Maine’s athletic rival, Bowdoin College, who admitted him as a freshman mathematics major at seventeen years old. When Magee was drafted into the Army the following year, he instead enrolled in the Navy’s language learning program before returning to Bowdoin.

Magee decided to continue his education further and was accepted to the Harvard Business School. He concurrently completed a master’s program in mathematics and economics at the University of Maine. After considering to pursue a PhD at Columbia University, Magee decided begin a professional career, aiming to incorporate his statistical skills into the business environment.

Originally employed as a financial analyst at Johns-Manville Corporation, Magee was hired away by Harry Wissman of Arthur D. Little, Inc. (ADL). Even though he was not quite sure what ADL or operations research really entailed, Magee was attracted to the opportunity to apply his mathematical abilities in business problem solving. He was the first full-time member of ADL’s newly formed Operations Research Group at ADL tasked with testing OR at Sears, Roebuck, & Co. The group, which grew to include such OR pioneers as Martin Ernst, Arthur Brown, and John Lathrop. was able to find trends in customer behavior, including the discovery that the frequency of customers’ orders provided far more valuable data than the quantity of purchased items. This project kick started Magee’s forty-eight year career with ADL.

Most of the OR analysts hired after Magee were former military personnel who brought their experience with the Navy’s Operations Evaluation Group to the private sector. This is included such operations research pioneers as Martin L. Ernst and George E. Kimball. During these early years, Magee published numerous articles with the Harvard Business Review. In 1964, he authored two pieces on decision trees which introduced the concepts of uncertainty, alternative outcomes, and consequential decisions to the business community.

As Magee moved up the chain of leadership, he started to apply his research to ADL itself. He reorganized and streamlined the company’s management structure. In 1974, Magee became both president and CEO of ADL. Under his leadership, the organization played a monumental role in numerous projects including the establishment of the US Postal Service as a government corporation outside the federal bureaucracy. Magee retired in 1988 but continued as a non-executive Chairman of the Board until 1998.

Magee was a founding member of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) in 1966-67. He was one of only five individuals to serve as both president of ORSA and The Institute for Management Sciences (TIMS). In 1978, he was awarded the George E. Kimball award for his distinguished service to these organizations and for his contribution to OR application. Magee passed away in May 2014, having spent his retirement as a watercolorist. 

Other Biographies

Profiles in Operations Research: John F. Magee
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INFORMS. Miser-Harris Presidential Portrait Gallery: John F. Magee. Accessed January 8, 2015. (link)

John Magee (2014) Interview by William Thomas March 30, 2014. Video by Shirley Mohr and Jonathan Gonzales, Boston, Mass.

John Magee oral history transcript

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John Magee (1996) Interview by Renee Garrelick, September 26. Concord Oral History Program. Alcorn Park, Cambridge, Mass. (transcript)