Gadon introduced idea of flexible work hours

Herman Gadon, who was on the faculty of the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at UCSD and director of executive programs in the university’s Division of Extension, passed away peacefully in his home at White Sands of La Jolla on Aug. 8.

Gadon introduced flexible working hours to the U.S., having done research in Europe and writing the first article on it for the Harvard Business Review and a book, “Alternative Work Schedules.” He was the author or co-author of numerous other professional articles. Born in Worcester, Mass., in 1924, Gadon graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1947 and got his Ph.D. in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953. He served in the U.S. Navy for three years during World War II as a lieutenant (junior grade).

After an appointment to the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire in 1964 - where he was one of the first four founding faculty - he was accredited as a member of the National Labor Panel of the American Arbitration Association. He also was a founding member of the Society of Professionals in Disputes Resolution (SPIDR). Until coming to San Diego in 1979, he served as an arbitrator and mediator for many private sector industrial and public sector disputes.

He was sent by Harvard Business School and M.I.T. to be a founding faculty member of IMEDE, International Management Development Institute in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a founding faculty member of business schools in Calcutta, India; Tehran, Iran; and Amsterdam, Netherlands.

He served on many boards, including the YMCA, United Fund, the Ecology of Work Conference, the Organizational Behavior Association, the UCSD Board of Overseers and the Center for Organizational Effectiveness. He was also a member of Rotary Club 33 of San Diego.

In addition to his wife, Natasha Josefowitz, he is survived by his children, Nicole Kelly, Dr. Margaret Gadon and John Gadon; grandsons Eliot and Nicholas Brown and Scott Kelly; and siblings Irene Ozer, Hal Gadon and Joe Gadon.