Retired Business School Professor Arch Richard Dooley (MBA '50, DCS '60), a champion of the teaching of manufacturing who also played a major role in establishing an executive education program at the Business School for practicing entrepreneurs and who served as an adviser to numerous business schools abroad, died on Monday, March 31, at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He was 72.

A member of the Business School faculty for 37 years, Dooley named the School's first Jesse Philips Professor of Manufacturing in 1969. He retired from the active faculty in 1991.

During the 1960s, when many other business schools were abandoning teaching and research in manufacturing altogether, Dooley made sure that Harvard Business School followed a different path. He is widely credited with playing the major role in preserving the School's strong commitment to production and operations management.

Dooley was also one of the first HBS faculty members to anticipate the need for executive education tailored to the needs of small business owner-managers. In 1969, he began working on a proposal for a unique nine-week program that was launched three years later. First called the Smaller Company Management Program (and now known as the Owner/President Management Program), it was an immediate success. Dooley served as faculty chairman from the Program's first session in 1972 until 1981.

Beyond the Harvard Business School campus, Dooley frequently shared his experience and expertise with numerous business schools abroad that sought his counsel. During the past quarter century, he worked with 26 schools in other countries, including the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Empresa (IESE) in Barcelona and the Instituto Panamericano de Alta Direcion de Empresa (IPADE) in Mexico City.

Harvard Business School bestowed its highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, on Dooley in 1993. The award is given annually to recognize extraordinary service to the School and to the field of business education.

Dooley is survived by his wife, the former Patricia Folts; and two sons, Arch Richard Dooley Jr., of New York City, and Christopher Folts Dooley of Littleton, Mass.

Burial was private. A memorial service will be held at the Memorial Church on Friday, April 11, at 2 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Professor Dooley's memory may be sent to the March of Dimes or any charity of choice.