Monroe Edward Spaght, born 9 Dec 1909, died 27 Jun 1993, was a research chemist who became president and chairman of the

Shell Oil Company Shell USA, Inc. (formerly Shell Oil Company, Inc.) is the United States–based wholly owned subsidiary of Shell plc, a UK-based transnational corporation " oil major" which is among the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 18,000 ...

. In 1965, he became the first American managing director of the

Royal Dutch Petroleum Company Shell plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational petroleum, oil and natural gas, gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and second ...

, Shell's parent company.Saxon, Wolfgang
"Monroe Spaght, 83, A Research Chemist Who Led Shell Oil,"
''New York Times.'' June 30, 1993.

Early life

He earned his BS, MA, and PhD degrees from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

; and he studied physics at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

Career

Spaght liked to call himself "just a country boy from

Eureka, California Eureka ( ; Wiyot: ; Hupa: ; ) is a city and the county seat of Humboldt County, located on the North Coast of California. The city is located on U.S. Route 101 on the shores of Humboldt Bay, north of San Francisco and south of the Oreg ...

." In the course of lifetime, he evolved in unexpected ways. He began working for Shell as a researcher in 1933. In his climb up the corporate ladder, he was named president of the Shell Development Company in 1949. He became executive vice president of Shell Oil in New York in 1953, president in 1961, and chairman from 1965. In 1965 he was also named one of seven managing directors of Royal Dutch Shell, which is based in London. The company by-laws had to be changed to accommodate a director with citizenship in a country other than the Netherlands or the United Kingdom. Until that time, the board of directors had been composed of four British and three Dutch members. In that period, Royal Dutch Petroleum ran 500 subsidiaries worldwide. Spaght retired in 1970 but remained a director of Royal Dutch and Shell for 10 more years.

Corporate philosophy

In Shell's upper management, Spaght often advocated that the ancient Greek ideal of ''

arete () is a concept in ancient Greek thought that refers to "excellence" of any kind—especially a person or thing's "full realization of potential or inherent function." The term may also refer to excellence in "Virtue, moral virtue." The conce ...

'' (excellence) had a place in the company's core values and corporate philosophy. In his view, "''Arete'' conveyed the idea of wholeness, of the fullest and finest exercise of one's abilities in all activities recognized as good. The Greeks prized it, strove for it, and rewarded it whenever it appeared." Spaght urged the company's managers to do the same.

Selected works

Seki's published writings encompass 12 works in 15 publications in 2 languages and 978 library holdings. WorldCat Identities Spaght, Monroe Edward 1909-
/ref> * 1965 -
''The Bright Key: Thoughts on the Relation of Business to Research and Education.''
New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts
OCLC 177921
* 1985 -
''The Long Road from Eureka: An Autobiography.''
England:

he author He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

br> OCLC 15962340
Bookout, p. 226. * 1978 -
''The Multinational Corporation: Its Manners, Methods and Myths.''
Pittsburgh:

Carnegie-Mellon University Press Carnegie Mellon University Press is a publisher that is part of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The press specializes in literary publishing, in particular, poetry. The press is currently a member of the Ass ...

OCLC 6001392

Honors

Order of Francisco de Miranda The Order of Francisco de Miranda (''Orden Francisco de Miranda'') is conferred by the Republic of Venezuela in memory of Francisco de Miranda (1754–1816). This national honor and decoration was created to recognize Venezuelan citizens and fore ...

(Venezuela), 1968.Bookout, John D. (1994)
"Monroe Edward Spaght," ''Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering,'' p. 225.
/ref> *

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau () is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has performed acts of special merits for ...

(Netherlands), 1970. * A named

Chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. It may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

in Chemistry was created in his honor at Stanford University; the incumbent Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry is Edward I. Solomon.

Notes

References

*Collins, Louise Mooney ''et al.'' (1994
''The Annual Obituary 1993: 1789 to the Present.''
Detroit, Michigan: St. James Press.
OCLC 31307435
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spaght, Monroe 1909 births 1993 deaths Stanford University alumni Leipzig University alumni American energy industry businesspeople Corporate executives 20th-century American businesspeople