Burleigh Bradford Gardner (December 4, 1902—January 12, 1988) was an American

social anthropologist Social anthropology is the study of patterns of behaviour in human societies and cultures. It is the dominant constituent of anthropology throughout the United Kingdom and much of Europe, where it is distinguished from cultural anthropology. In t ...

, and Founding Chairman of Social Research Inc. of Chicago, Illinois,Burleigh B. Gardner
in: Chicago Tribune News, January 14, 1988 known for its pioneering work in the field of consumer motivation research and quantitative marketing research.

Biography

Dr. Gardner grew up in Falfurrias, Texas, after his family left Galveston following the Galveston Flood in which his father lost his business.John Easton
Consuming Interests
in ''University of Chicago Magazine'', October 2001. He obtained his BA in engineering from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

.Karesh, Michael A.
The social scientific origins of symbolic consumer research: Social Research, Inc.
Proceedings of the 7th Conference on Historical Research in Marketing and Management Thought. 1995. He received a scholarship to Harvard University, where he first obtained his master's degree in Physical Anthropology under Earnest A. Hooton, then his PhD in Cultural Anthropology ''Personnel Series''. nr 71-90 (1943). p.33 under the supervision of W. Lloyd Warner. In the late 1920s, Gardner started his work in social science as a field worker for Warner's Department of Industrial Research at the Harvard Graduate School of Business. In 1933 he began the study of the social organization of a rural Mississippi community, together with

Allison Davis Allison Davis may refer to: * Allison Davis (anthropologist) (1902–1983), American anthropologist * Allison Davis (television executive) (born 1953), American television executive * Allison S. Davis, American lawyer {{hndis, Davis, Allison ...

and Mary R. Gardner. This resulted in 1941 of the classic book on race relations, ''Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class in a Southern City''. During World War II he worked in the Personnel Department of Western Electric. His experience at Western Electric became the basis for the classic textbook, ''Human Relations in Industry,'' written together with David G. Moore. In 1946, he founded the management consulting firm ''Social Research Inc.'' with several colleagues from the University of Chicago including Earl Kahn and Lee Rainwater. Early clients included Sears Roebuck & Company and the United States Air Force. He worked with psychologist

Carl Rogers Carl Ransom Rogers (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987) was an American psychologist who was one of the founders of humanistic psychology and was known especially for his person-centered psychotherapy. Rogers is widely considered one of the f ...

, sociologist W. Lloyd Warner and psychometrician

Benjamin Drake Wright Benjamin Drake Wright (March 30, 1926 – October 25, 2015) was an American psychometrician. He is largely responsible for the widespread adoption of Georg Rasch's measurement principles and models.Rasch, G. (1988/1972, Summer). Review of the c ...

among others. He was the chairman of Social Research from its beginning until 1984. Furthermore, Dr. Gardner was assistant professor of Industrial Relations at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, taught at Roosevelt University for many years, was board-member of the Duncan

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

in Chicago and member of the

American Marketing Association The American Marketing Association (AMA) is a professional association for marketing professionals with 30,000 members as of 2012. It has 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States. The AMA was formed in from t ...

Work

Social Research Inc.

In 1946, Social Research Inc. (SRI) was founded by the Dr. Gardner together with W. Lloyd Warner, and William Henry. All three were on the faculty at the University of Chicago. Gardner had enough of academic life and resigned to become the full time Chairman of Social Research. SRI, as it became known, was founded to apply social science techniques to create new solutions for business problems.

Selected publications

Books: * Davis, Allison, Burleigh B. Gardner, and Mary R. Gardner. ''Deep south: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class.'' Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1941. * Gardner, Burleigh Bradford, and David G. Moore. ''Human relations in industry''. RD Irwin, 1955. *Gardner, Burleigh, ''A Conceptual Framework for Advertising,'' Crain Communications, Inc., Chicago, 1982. Articles, a selection: * Whyte, William F., and Burleigh B. Gardner. "The position and problems of the foreman." ''Human Organization'' 4.2 (1945): 17–28. * Gardner, Burleigh B., and

William Foote Whyte William Foote Whyte (June 27, 1914 – July 16, 2000) was an American sociology, sociologist chiefly known for his ethnography, ethnographic study in urban sociology, ''Street Corner Society''. A proponent of participant observation, he lived f ...

. "Methods for the study of human relations in industry." ''American Sociological Review'' 11.5 (1946): 506–512. * Gardner, Burleigh B. "The factory as a social system." in: Whyte, William Foote (Ed), (1946). ''Industry and society''. pp. 4–20. * Gardner, Burleigh B., and Sidney J. Levy. "The product and the brand." ''Harvard Business Review'' 33.2 (1955): 33–39. * Gardner, Burleigh B. "The package as a communication." ''Marketing for Tomorrow... Today'', Chicago: American Marketing Association 25 (1967): 117–118.

References

External links

Burleigh B. Gardner
Chicago Tribune {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, Burleigh B. 1902 births 1988 deaths American business theorists University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts alumni Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Chicago faculty 20th-century American economists 20th-century American anthropologists