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It was Gould’s ability to lead while giving those who worked under him a sense of freedom that allowed for significant growth within the MBA programs, says Harry L. Davis, the Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Creative Management. Davis, a longtime colleague and friend, was asked by Gould to join the Deans’ Office as academic deputy dean in 1983. 

“He didn’t just delegate; he had the ability to roll up his sleeves at exactly the right time—and he didn’t micromanage,” Davis says. “He also always acknowledged others’ contributions.”

Hanna Holborn Gray, the Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor Emerita and former president of the University of Chicago, echoes this sentiment, describing Gould as unusually sensitive and considerate toward others. “Jack’s humane spirit, intellectual vitality, and personal kindness made him the best of colleagues and contributors to the life of our university,” she says. “Always generous in recognizing their achievements, he took pride in his colleagues’ success, seeing his decanal role in part as that of supporting and encouraging their careers and opportunities.” 

As dean, Gould told colleagues he needed to “rethink the mission” of the curriculum to include more of the soft skills that he felt were essential in the workplace. He formed a committee of both junior and senior professors to better understand what courses were needed for a business career. “He would say, ‘Let’s experiment. Let’s try things. We need to keep learning,’” Davis says.

Under his tenure, Gould supported Davis to start the Leadership Effectiveness and Development program, LEAD, which is now a required course for first-year students that builds their communication and team-building skills and helps them develop a personal approach to leadership. Additionally, Gould oversaw the introduction of entrepreneurial courses that he felt would serve as a hands-on road map for students interested in developing businesses. These courses later paved the way for the at UChicago, which provides venture support and training for students interested in startups, venture capital, and private equity.

Gray praises Gould鈥檚 commitment to interdisciplinary education, citing his work with the university鈥檚 liberal arts program to create a summer course that offered a core introduction to the MBA, including quantitative studies. He saw it as an opportunity to introduce the idea of a business education to a broader range of students while they were still undergraduates. 

鈥淗e built an original model for an interdisciplinary scholarly community that forged connections between projects and fields of investigation not ordinarily linked together by professional schools elsewhere,鈥� Gray says. 鈥淗e believed that a broad educational background in the liberal arts and the skills it fostered could only enrich and strengthen those who would become MBA students and leaders in the world to which their degrees would take them.鈥� 

Others close to Gould, including Davis, similarly attribute his broad interests鈥攆ar beyond the field of economics鈥攖o his success. At one point, Davis remembers Gould bringing in David Bevington, professor emeritus and Shakespearean scholar at the university, to speak to a management class. 鈥淗e had a diverse set of friends in the broader community and around the university, which led him to have a larger view of the world,鈥� Davis says.

Kathleen Carpenter, Gould鈥檚 spouse, recalls his longtime interest in something that was far less academic. As an only child growing up in Cicero, Illinois, he would accompany his grandfather on trips to see magicians perform as part of vaudeville shows at some of the large Chicago theaters. It led to a lifelong interest in magic and friendships within the community.

鈥淭o his parents鈥� great relief, he chose to attend college instead of becoming a professional magician,鈥� Carpenter says. 鈥淗e was an economist, but he always had a deck of cards in his pocket.鈥� 

Gould is survived by Carpenter and his two sons, John and Jeffrey.