'''Monroe Edward Spaght''', born 9 Dec 1909,<ref>U.S. Social Security Index</ref> died 27 Jun 1993,<ref>National Calendar of Probate</ref> was a research chemist who became president and chairman of the Shell Oil Company. In 1965, he became the first American managing director of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company, Shell's parent company.<ref name="nyt1993">Saxon, Wolfgang. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE2D8103AF933A05755C0A965958260&sec=&spon= "Monroe Spaght, 83, A Research Chemist Who Led Shell Oil,"] ''New York Times.'' June 30, 1993.</ref>
==Early life==
He earned his BS, MA, and PhD degrees from Stanford University; and he studied physics at the University of Leipzig.<ref name="nyt1993"/>
==Career== Spaght liked to call himself "just a country boy from Eureka, California." In the course of lifetime, he evolved in unexpected ways. He began working for Shell as a researcher in 1933. In his climb up the corporate ladder, he was named president of the Shell Development Company in 1949. He became executive vice president of Shell Oil in New York in 1953, president in 1961, and chairman from 1965.<ref name="nyt1993"/>
In 1965 he was also named one of seven managing directors of Royal Dutch Shell, which is based in London. The company by-laws had to be changed to accommodate a director with citizenship in a country other than the Netherlands or the United Kingdom. Until that time, the board of directors had been composed of four British and three Dutch members. In that period, Royal Dutch Petroleum ran 500 subsidiaries worldwide.<ref name="nyt1993"/>
Spaght retired in 1970 but remained a director of Royal Dutch and Shell for 10 more years.<ref name="nyt1993"/>
===Corporate philosophy=== In Shell's upper management, Spaght often advocated that the ancient Greek ideal of ''arete'' (excellence) had a place in the company's core values and corporate philosophy. In his view, "''Arete'' conveyed the idea of wholeness, of the fullest and finest exercise of one's abilities in all activities recognized as good. The Greeks prized it, strove for it, and rewarded it whenever it appeared." Spaght urged the company's managers to do the same.<ref name="bookout225"/>
==Selected works== Seki's published writings encompass 12 works in 15 publications in 2 languages and 978 library holdings.<ref>[http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/identities/default.htm WorldCat Identities]: [http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no2003-65246 Spaght, Monroe Edward 1909- ]</ref> {{dynamic list}} * 1965 -- [https://books.google.com/books?id=JgA8AAAAIAAJ&q=the+bright+key ''The Bright Key: Thoughts on the Relation of Business to Research and Education.''] New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts. [http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/177921 OCLC 177921].<ref name="bookout225"/> * 1985 -- [https://books.google.com/books?id=bCO1AAAAIAAJ&q=spaght ''The Long Road from Eureka: An Autobiography.'']. England:[the author]. [http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/15962340 OCLC 15962340].<ref name="bookout226">Bookout, p. 226.</ref> * 1978 -- [https://books.google.com/books?id=R9XmOgAACAAJ&q=spaght ''The Multinational Corporation: Its Manners, Methods and Myths.'']. Pittsburgh: Carnegie-Mellon University Press. [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/60081392&referer=brief_results OCLC 6001392].<ref name="bookout226"/>
==Honors== * Order of Francisco de Miranda (Venezuela), 1968.<ref name="bookout225">Bookout, John D. (1994). [https://books.google.com/books?id=gyThSk7uk4kC&dq=Order+of+Francisco+de+Miranda&pg=PA225 "Monroe Edward Spaght," ''Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering,'' p. 225.]</ref> * Order of Orange-Nassau (Netherlands), 1970.<ref name="bookout225"/> * A named Chair in Chemistry was created in his honor at Stanford University; the incumbent Monroe E. Spaght Professor of Chemistry is Edward I. Solomon. * Chemical Industry Medal (1966) <ref>{{Cite web|title=Dr. Monroe E. Spaght|url=https://nae.edu/28526/Dr-Monroe-E-Spaght|website=NAE Website|access-date=2025-11-28|language=en}}</ref>
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== *Collins, Louise Mooney ''et al.'' (1994) [https://books.google.com/books?id=pVMYAAAAIAAJ&q=spaght ''The Annual Obituary 1993: 1789 to the Present.''] Detroit, Michigan: St. James Press. {{ISBN|978-1-55862-320-0}}; [http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/oclc/31307435 OCLC 31307435]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Spaght, Monroe}} Category:1909 births Category:1993 deaths Category:Stanford University alumni Category:Leipzig University alumni Category:American businesspeople in the energy industry Category:Corporate executives Category:20th-century American businesspeople