Jerry McCarthy
Introduction
More on E. Jerome McCarthy from Bill Perreault
Marketing lost one of its pioneers when E. Jerome “Jerry” McCarthy passed away peacefully at home in East Lansing Michigan on December 3, 2015; he was 87. He is survived by Joanne, his wife of 66 years, and by their 8 children and 17 grandchildren.
Jerry was honored with the ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍø’s Trailblazer Award in 1987, and was voted one of the “top five” leaders in marketing thought by marketing educators. Jerry is best known for his innovative teaching materials and texts, including Basic Marketing, which was first published in 1960, and is now in its 19th edition. Basic Marketing, and then subsequently his shorter Essentials of Marketing, changed the way marketing was taught because it took a managerial point of view, rather than the institutional perspective that was previously the standard approach. He also introduced a marketing strategy planning framework, which organized marketing decisions around the “4Ps”—product, place, promotion and price. As these approaches became the standard in other texts, McCarty continued to innovate, including new materials in the digital realm, and Basic Marketing became one of the most widely used business texts in the world. For many editions, this work was a family affair, with his wife Joanne serving as chief copy-editor.
After McCarthy earned his PhD at the University of Minnesota, he was on the faculty at Notre Dame and was also a Fellow in a prestigious Ford Foundation Program at Harvard, an experience that focused on how to make marketing management practice more rigorous and shaped his thoughts on the needs of students and educators. He spent most of his academic career at Michigan State University, where he earned a reputation for doing his work with passion and purpose. In true Jerry McCarthy style, when he retired at Michigan State and became “emeritus” he then became cofounder of Planned Innovations, a consulting firm that for many years guided companies in market-oriented growth. His experience in training managers and guiding firm’s growth fueled new ideas for how to improve his texts and teaching materials.
Jerry’s personal live was as energetic as his professional one. As a young man he was an accomplished figure skater and up until shortly before his death he was passionate about downhill skiing, wind surfing, and “mauler” football games with his large family.
Funeral mass will be held at 10:30 am on January 2, 2016 at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 955 Alton Rd, E. Lansing, MI. Visitation one hour prior to mass.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the "Joanne N. and E. Jerome McCarthy Endowment for Arts Education" at the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts, 750 E. Shaw Lane, E. Lansing, MI 48824 or Holy Childhood Church, 150 W Main St, Harbor Springs, MI 49740.
An obituary appears here:
