The Man Who Inspired a Million Dollar Endowment
Sherry Roth, Fletcher L. Byrom Earth and Mineral Sciences Library
“What’s the road ahead to be for boards in 2009? In one word: ‘Byrom-esque.’” The term “Byrom-esque” describes a theory of Penn State graduate Fletcher L. Byrom in whose name George Middlemas created the Fletcher L. Byrom Earth and Mineral Sciences Library: program and collections endowment. The opening quote from Directors and Boards targets struggling boardrooms and highlights one of many Byrom philosophies: "the best-motivated person is a 5-foot 10-inch non-swimmer in six feet of water."
Around the Fletcher L. Byrom Earth and Mineral Sciences Library (www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/emsl.html), Fletcher Byrom is still affectionately referred to as “Fletch.” His spirit in the library is as noticeable as the "Creation Figure: Life Force sculpture," a Carborundum Corporation award for excellence, honoring him in 1976.
Creation Figure: Life Force,
donated to Penn State
by Fletcher L Byrom
Byrom’s many accomplishments are well documented in varying editions of Who’s Who, his words cited often in business publications and newspaper articles, and his philanthropy renowned in western Pennsylvania where he presided over Pittsburgh’s Koppers Company, Inc. until his retirement in 1982.
However, it is from five boxes of original memorabilia in the Special Collections Library that his feisty spirit explodes (www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/speccolls.html). Multiple speeches on complex economic principles radiate simplicity and common sense when “Fletch” presents them. Letters of gratitude from three presidents and a Secretary of the Navy warm these files. Honorary plaques forged from the very alloys that Byrom studied as a Penn State undergraduate in metallurgy reflect his character.
Byrom’s approach to managing is encapsulated in an archived 1969 speech, "Hang Loose: a Message to my Successor." His first advice to people following in his footsteps is to eschew organizational charts which he describes as “neat little boxes [that] serve to identify functional islands.” Byrom warns, “Organizational charts tell you more about what you can’t do than about what you can do.” He encourages successors to “increase the number of interfaces” to create a more active and aggressive organization. Simplifying this advice with a physics analogy, he thinks increasing interactions among an organization’s workers is like shaving kindling to expose more surfaces to heat and oxygen: a bigger, brighter blaze ignites more quickly.
His followers are encouraged by another Byrom adage, "make sure you generate a reasonable number of mistakes." He attributes Koppers’ success in finding superior talent to keeping an open mind about what people can do. In "Hang Loose," Byrom states, “We had no use for specialists who are only specialists.” He is living proof of this axiom and cites his own experience,
Blowing Steel,
by George Pearse Ennis,
a Steidle collection painting
in the Earth and Mineral Sciences Library
"I came out of college with a degree in metallurgy, and what I wanted to do more than anything else in the world was to make steel. Now here it is almost 30 years later, and I have yet to make my first pound of steel."
Byrom never did make that pound of steel, but he retired from Koppers as chairman and chief executive officer of a company that had diversified into engineering, construction, and chemicals. Directors and Boards described him as “a leader who moved easily between the business world and service to government, science, academia, and health care enterprises.” Former chairman of the Conference Board, member of the Business Council and of the American Iron and Steel Institute, Byrom also chaired the Committee for Economic Development, which he joined saying, “I have been the recipient of an awful lot. Sometimes you just feel you owe something to someone.”
Byrom’s archival materials exude another prominent characteristic: humility. Hailed as “the outspoken statesman of American business and champion of capitalism,” by The New York Times, this inspiration for a million-dollar endowment described himself in an early speech this way:
Take me, for instance, I am a metallurgical engineer by training, and the head of a large corporation by sheer providence. And yet, if I can judge from the comments of my peers and the number of invitations I get to stand up and make a fool of myself, I am considered a spokesman for the business community. Well, I know my limitations, and I say, may the good Lord help the business community.
George Middlemas, a 1968 Penn State graduate, is currently general partner in Apex Venture Partners, a diversified venture capital management group, and serves on the Board of Directors of Pure Cycle Corporation. Middlemas regarded Byrom as a friend and mentor, saying,
"Fletch Byrom was a great influence on me as a young man. He was responsible for me attending Penn State, and we spent a lot of time in conversation and debate—he certainly helped to sharpen my intellect. I can think of no better way of honoring a former University Trustee and Distinguished Alumnus than to have a library named in his honor."
On July 23, 2009, Fletcher Byrom died at the age of 91, but his enthusiasm and zest for life are still alive in the University Libraries (http://www.libraries.psu.edu/psul/emsl/aboutus/byrom.html).