Dr. Edward R. (Ed) Clayton was a professor emeritus of business information technology at Virginia Tech, where he served on the faculty for forty years before his retirement in 2008. He joined what was then the Department of Business Administration in 1968 after earning his Ph.D. in engineering management from Clemson University, and had previously graduated with honours with a B.S. in geology from the University of Florida .
At Virginia Tech, Dr. Clayton coordinated the management area from 1970 to 1971 and the management science area from 1976 to 1980. When a separate management science department was formed in 1980—later becoming the Department of Business Information Technology in the Pamplin College of Business—he helped shape its direction. In 1995 he was named the Ralph Medinger Lenz Professor of Management Science, one of the first endowed professorships created in the college .
His research contributions included 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and one book, and he served on the editorial boards of several professional journals. He was a charter member of what is now the Decision Sciences Institute and held numerous offices in its southeast region, as well as in the southeast region of the Institute of Management Science. He served twice as president of the Southeast Institute of Management Science (now INFORMS) and received its Distinguished Service Award .
Dr. Clayton was also a dedicated and popular teacher who taught a wide range of graduate and undergraduate courses, receiving the college's Certificate of Teaching Excellence. He chaired and served on numerous doctoral committees over his career .
Dr. Clayton's forty-year career at Virginia Tech reflected a rare combination of rigorous scholarship, dedicated teaching and generous service to the professional community. His work in management science and decision sciences helped shape the field, and his commitment to students earned him the respect and affection of generations of graduates.
We are grateful for the standard of excellence he set and for the legacy of scholarship he leaves behind. His contributions to the review of quantitative and business-technology manuscripts continue to inform the care with which APC approaches every submission.
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