February 12, 2025 in In Memoriam
In Memoriam: Martin K. Starr
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https://doi.org/10.1287/orms.2025.01.04n
Martin K. Starr passed away on Jan. 25, 2025, at the age of 97. He was Professor Emeritus of Operations Research and Management Science at the Columbia School of Business, where he served for 32 years, and Distinguished Professor of Operations Management and Management Science at the Crummer Graduate School of Business, Rollins College. The operations management (OM), operations research (O.R.) and management science (MS) communities will miss him dearly, not only because he was an icon in academia but also because of his inspiration, vision and leadership that have shaped our fields.
Martin (also known as Marty) was a giant in the INFORMS community and the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS). He served as editor-in-chief (EIC) of Management Science for 15 years (1967-1982), making him the longest-serving EIC of an INFORMS journal. He served as president of The Institute of Management Sciences (one of INFORMS’ predecessors) in 1974-1975 and president of POMS in 1995. In recognition of Marty’s contributions to INFORMS and POMS, he was elected as a Fellow of both organizations. Also, in 2006, POMS named an annual prize in his honor – the Martin K. Starr Excellence in Production and Operations Management Practice Award.
From an early age, Marty was interested in chemistry, photography and filmmaking. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his undergraduate studies, initially majoring in mathematics. His education was interrupted by military service, spending a year and a half in officer training for the U.S. Navy and Maritime. Upon returning to MIT, he switched to electrical engineering, which is more applied.
After graduating from MIT, Martin worked as a method engineer at Yale & Towne, a lock manufacturer. This experience sparked his interest in product design, leading him to earn a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1953.
Marty started his career working as a consultant at Young & Rubicam, serving major clients such as Bristol‑Myers, TRW, DuPont, Eastman Kodak, GE, AT&T, GM and Ford. After accumulating vast amounts of practical experience, Marty was keen on disseminating his knowledge to bridge the gap between academia and industry. To achieve this, he joined the faculty at Columbia School of Business.
In 1962, Marty and David Miller co-wrote one of the most influential books on inventory control, which explains inventory theory through both mathematical concepts and actual industry practices. The intent of this book is aptly stated in the preface [1]: “It so happens that inventory theory is mathematically interesting. By this we mean that mathematicians can find in our subject problems which exercise their ingenuity. However, there is no necessary connection between problems which are of interest to mathematicians and problems whose solutions have meaningful consequences in the practical applications of the theory. Our intention has been to confine consideration to the latter kind of problem, not the former.” This book was praised by both researchers and practitioners and was translated into French, Portuguese, Spanish and other languages.
Throughout his career, Marty published 20 books and more than 100 research articles. As articulated by Gupta and Roth, Marty’s work laid the foundation for OM as an academic discipline, emphasizing the importance of cross-functional integration and the development of modular production concepts that enable mass customization and operational agility [2]. Marty’s legacy continues to influence modern research and practice in operations and supply chain management.
Marty is survived by his son Loren Starr, daughter-in-law Gail and grandson Michael. Additional information on Marty is available on the INFORMS website [3].
References
- Starr, M. K. and Miller, D.W., 1962, “Inventory Control–Theory and Practice,” Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice‑Hall, Inc.
- Gupta S. and Roth A.V., 2009, “Martin K. Starr: A Visionary Proponent for System Integration, Modular Production, and Catastrophe Avoidance,” Production and Operations Management, Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 1-12.
- https://www.informs.org/Explore/History-of-O.R.-Excellence/Biographical-Profiles/Starr-Martin-K
Kalyan Singhal is the McCurdy Professor of Operations Management at the Merrick School of Business, University of Baltimore. He founded the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS) and co-founded the Manufacturing and Service Operations Management Society of INFORMS. He founded the POMS journal Production and Operations Management in 1992 and has been serving as its editor-in-chief. He also founded the Management and Business Review (MR) and serves as its co-editor-in-chief. Christopher Tang is a University Distinguished Professor and the holder of the Edward W. Carter Chair in Business Administration at the UCLA Anderson School of Management at University of California, Los Angeles. He received his B.Sc. (First class honours) in mathematics from King's College London in 1981, M.A. in statistics in 1983, M.Phil in administrative science in 1983, and Ph.D. in operations research in 1985 from Yale University. He is the INFORMS VP of Publications and former editor-in-chief of Manufacturing & Service Operations Management.
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