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A funeral service was held Nov. 12 at the Eustis and Cornell Funeral Home in Marblehead, Mass., for former Carroll School of Management Associate Dean Richard B. Maffei, who co-founded the CSOM full-time MBA program. Dr. Maffei died on Nov. 7 at the age of 88.
Dr. Maffei joined the CSOM computer science faculty in 1967, during a period in which the school was broadening its graduate curriculum. The MBA program, which had begun on a part-time basis in 1957, consisted of 36 credit hours of courses and a thesis until 1965, when it expanded to a 54-60 credit curriculum.
In 1969, Dr. Maffei was appointed associate dean and director of the MBA program, and along with Assistant Dean Raymond Keyes and other faculty members began a study of the school’s graduate curriculum. As a result of their work, the school inaugurated a full-time, 54-credit program with 18 required courses and seven electives for the fall 1969 semester.
“This was his greatest contribution,” said CSOM Associate Professor David Murphy, a longtime colleague who praised Dr. Maffei as a “massively intellectual guy.
“Establishing a full-time MBA program was a very significant step for the Carroll School, and for Boston College,” said Murphy.
An MIT graduate, Dr. Maffei served in the US Navy and earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School. In addition to BC, he taught at MIT and Dartmouth College. Dr. Maffei retired from BC in 1998.
Dr. Maffei was pre-deceased by his wife Joyce. He is survived by his children Andy, Greg, Amanda, Eliza and Adam, brothers Gilbert and Arthur, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Burial took place at Waterside Cemetery in Marblehead.
Donations may be made in Dr. Maffei’s memory to the Kaplan Family Hospice House, 75 Sylvan Street, Suite B-102 Danvers, Mass. 01923.