He was accepted into Harvard Business School without even having
applied. He helped plan the invasion of Normandy during World War
II, a move which ultimately helped lead to the defeat of the Nazi
regime. And in his 85 years he has shaken the hands of U.S.
presidents and foreign dictators and doled out management advice to
dozens of companies ““ from Sparklett’s Water to Gucci.
But when talking to UCLA Anderson School of Management Professor
Theodore Andersen, it’s not his worldly experience that
causes his students to pause, but the enthusiasm with which he
speaks. “Students know I love them. Some of them have never
failed before and I scare them. But all of it is my philosophy, and
I’m just passing down my life experiences,” Andersen
said in a dimly-lit office cluttered with dozens of fading
photographs and sentimental trinkets. A professor who has probably
heard every excuse there is for not turning in homework, Andersen
began teaching in 1946 and is on contract to teach at UCLA for one
more year ““ acquiring a full 60 years of teaching experience
when he retires in 2006. “He gave us his resume. I think
it’s awesome that he’s done so much. I feel like I can
ask him any career question,” said Kenny Chow, a fourth-year
sociology student currently taking a management class with
Andersen.
“Johnny Wooden” and torpedoes Born in a small town
in Indiana in 1921, Andersen’s family owned a grinding mill
but soon found themselves in the bustling heart of Chicago as the
Great Depression set in. For Andersen, growing up meant living with
what he called “the gift of poverty.” His mother worked
two jobs to make ends meet and taught her son the value of a strict
work ethic and an independent spirit, he said. “The older I
got the more I appreciated her. Once a guy stole her purse and she
ran after him and beat the hell out of him,” Andersen added
laughingly as he remembered the event. It was with the same kind of
determination that this young kid from the country pushed his way
through Tilden High School, a large public school with 7,000
students. Andersen soon became captain of the swim team and
chairman of the school chapter’s Red Cross. In addition, he
became one of six students to make it to college where he majored
in economics, saying he always “liked numbers.” Purdue
University was Andersen’s first encounter with higher
education, and he willingly soaked up the atmosphere like a sponge.
He watched “Johnny Wooden” play basketball, bonded with
his fraternity brothers, and continued to pursue his love of
swimming. “College was not so serious, not like it is now. I
had my girlfriend, my frat, my swimming,” he said. Little did
Andersen know the fun and games would soon come to an end in the
grimmest of ways. He was a senior in college when the Japanese war
planes attacked Pearl Harbor. “After that, I was sure I was
going to go fight. I was thinking about the navy, but then the dean
called me in.” It was at this point Andersen learned he had
been accepted into Harvard’s business school as a member of
the Transportation Corps ““ a federally sponsored unit that
would help the military manage supplies. And while he didn’t
know how he got accepted into Harvard, Andersen began working
16-hour days with the eventual knowledge that he would enter the
navy and fight in World War II. “At the end of each semester
I would check into the infirmary on campus. Many of us needed
it,” Andersen said. After graduation he began planning the
invasion of Normandy. At that point the military was losing 30
percent of its ships due to torpedoes, Andersen said. In fact he
was on a ship when it was hit with one, but it didn’t
puncture the hull. Toward the end of the war Andersen traveled
throughout Europe, stopping in locales such as Berlin. Meeting up
with an old college roommate back in the United States, the former
navy officer decided to become an entrepreneur and started a
housing business. “We thought that it would be a good idea,
so we would both put on our uniforms and went to beg for business.
It was hard work,” Andersen said. The housing business could
only hold Andersen’s attention for so long. Soon he began
thinking of academia and promptly entered a doctorate program
““ the beginning of a career in teaching.
Back to the basics In a profession that is sometimes considered
to be under-respected and under-valued, students say Andersen is
one of those teachers who really make a difference. Currently
teaching Basic Managerial Finance this quarter, Andersen has taught
both undergraduate and graduate classes in management and finance,
according to the UCLA Registrar’s Web site. At a research
institution like UCLA, students can at times be saddled with
professors more interested in their own research than undergraduate
curricula. But students currently taking a management class with
Andersen find out almost immediately that this professor is
different. The jovial professor assigns 12 hours of homework a week
and expects students to turn the work in promptly at every lecture.
“I like my students to learn. … If you do the homework, you
learn from mistakes. Sometimes we learn from success, but I must
admit we learn more from failure. (Automotive giant Henry) Ford had
two bankruptcies before he made it,” Andersen said. As much
as Andersen strives to teach his students at every occasion, he
also admits he learns a lot from the more than 20,000 he has
taught. “In the old days,” Andersen said, he would
invite his students to his home for Sunday brunch. Even now, with
many students’ schedules and responsibilities making that
unfeasible, the professor expects every student to visit him in
office hours at least once. Currently taking Basic Managerial
Finance with Andersen, Chow said he has gone in to see the
professor during office hours and was impressed with the way he
interacted with him. “He basically talked about learning from
your mistakes. I was confused on a problem and he made me figure it
out. He was like, “˜I’m not going to give you the
answer.’ He’s great like that,” Chow said. With a
particular penchant for asking students where they’re from,
Andersen said he was “particularly interested in their
grandparents.” “I get students from all over the world,
and it’s so amazing. … Once I had a student from Mongolia,
and it makes you wonder, what’s life like in Mongolia? So I
ask,” Andersen said, adding that he has had students from
Cambodia who witnessed the rule of Pol Pot and one from South
Vietnam who escaped the country in a small boat. The relationships
Andersen has forged with some his students is special to him in
that they go beyond the classroom. In fact, the professor has
loaned many of his students money for down payments on their first
homes ““ up to $10,000 or $20,000. “I trust my students,
and I don’t even hesitate when I loan them money. … I
always know they’ll pay me back. I’ve never had a
student not pay me back,” he said. Andersen also remembers
students who continued to have less than reputable careers. Both
Charles Keating, indicted for violating congressional ethics
standards, and Bill Haldeman, who was made infamous in the
Watergate scandal under President Nixon, were his students.
“Out of all my students only four have ever gone to jail on
fraud charges. I consider that pretty good,” Andersen said
with a smile.
“The word is “˜variety'” As soon as his
students hear that Andersen has been teaching for close to 60
years, they almost immediately ask why. “I’m having a
good time. Why stop?” Andersen responded. For Andersen, he
can’t imagine another profession as beneficial as teaching,
and in fact advises many of his students to think about becoming
professors. Teaching allows Andersen not only to see the world
through his students’ eyes, but to also visit exotic
locations as a consultant or government representative. Whether
it’s working a government job for a trade council in Peru and
meeting former President John F. Kennedy, or working a corporate
job with Ford Motors, Andersen has done much while being a teacher.
“When you become a professor you have a lot of control in
your life. … The word is “˜variety,'” he said.
Andersen has even had the opportunity to work with Sean Penn and
Madonna when they were dating, and the professor was asked to get
involved in the now infamous fiasco in which Penn punched a
photographer who shot a picture of him coming out of a hotel.
“The photographer wanted lifetime wages and I did law work
for damages. That’s why I got involved. … Working with law
firms can be an adventure,” Andersen said. Jovially
reminiscing about the various experiences that have come to define
the professor’s life, Andersen makes it a point to learn
every step of the way. He likes to make sure every student knows,
“You have to lose about 2,000 games of chess to
learn.”