Provost Peggy Agouris sent the following message to the campus community on Nov. 10, 2023. – Ed.
Dear Colleagues,
I write to share the news that Hector Hugo Guerrero, Richard C. Kraemer Term Professor of Business, Emeritus, passed away peacefully on Sunday, November 5, 2023. Hector was born January 23, 1948, in McAllen, Texas, to his loving parents, Juan Francisco Guerrero and Irene Vera Guerrero. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1971 and MBA in Management Science in 1978 from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Ph.D. in Operations and Systems Analysis from the University of Washington in 1983.
Before embarking on a career in academia, he was employed by Dow Chemical Co. in Freeport, Texas as a power plant operations engineer; for Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. in Sunnyvale, California as a digital electronics design engineer and flight equipment project engineer; and by the Central Texas Health Systems Agency in Austin, Texas as an information systems analyst designing information systems for regional health care providers. While working on his Ph.D., Professor Guerrero worked at Dartmouth College as an Assistant Professor of Operations Manager in the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration. In 1986 he joined the University of Notre Dame College of Business Administration as an Assistant Professor of Operations Management and Information Systems.
In 1990, he joined the faculty of William & Mary. Professor Guerrero taught in the area of manufacturing planning and control, statistics, information systems, general management and business quantitative methods to MBAs, Executive MBAs, and undergraduates. Professionally, he was active in the areas of Operations Management and Information Systems. At the Mason School of Business, Professor Guerrero was former Director of the Resident MBA Program and held the role of Assistant Dean for the MBA Program. He served as a visiting professor to Santiago Chile and the ILADES (Instituto Latinoamericano de Estudios Sociales) Program de Postgrado en Economía, and was Director of the COMPETE Center. He was designated the Richard C. Kraemer Term Professor of Business in November 2014, and retired in 2017 after 27 years of dedicated service.
Professor Guerrero was known as a talented, dedicated, and versatile teacher. His student comments were uniformly strong. He published scholarly articles on the topics of material requirements planning, automated manufacturing, group technology, intelligent systems, forecasting, inventory and safety stock planning, and demand management. One outgrowth of his teaching is the thinking that led to his book, Excel Data Analysis, Modeling, and Simulation (2010), an important contribution in the emerging field of Business Analytics.
Professor Guerrero is a well-liked and respected colleague in the Raymond A. Mason School of Business who has made important service contributions. For the university, he served on many committees and groups including the President’s Advisory Taskforce on Productivity, Faculty Assembly, Grievance Committee and as advisor to the Hispanic Student Organization; and for his school he was active as chair of the Mason School’s Dean Search Committee, and as a member of the Personnel Committee, Curriculum Committee, Faculty Affairs Committee, Dean’s International Opportunities Task Force, various search committees, among many others.
He also served on the editorial review boards for journals in his field including the Journal of Operations Management and IEEE Transactions of Engineering Management; as a reviewer for the Journal of Operations Management, Management Science, Decision Sciences, Simulation, Production and Operations Management (POMS), International Journal of Conflict Management, International Journal of Production Research, European Journal of Operational Research, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management; and as a session chair for POMS, the Decision Sciences Institute, and The Institute of Management Science.
Professor Guerrero had experience in consulting and executive education with a wide variety of clients, including the U.S. Government, Latin American firms, as well as many small and large U.S. manufacturing and service firms. His clients included IBA, Arthur Andersen, Miles Laboratories, Sterling Drugs, Lockheed, Digital Equipment, AMF Bowling, Welsh Oil, Trout Trading Co., Müller Martini Manufacturing Corp., U.S. Department of Labor, Virginia Department of Planning and Budget, South Carolina Department of Corrections, U.S. Department of Justice, High Technology Corporation, Newport News Shipbuilding Corp., Atlantic Ordnance Command, and the Department of Homeland Security.
Hector reveled in life’s treasures, whether traveling and learning, cherishing time with family and friends, or savoring good cuisine and music. Above all, his heart brimmed with a calming joy, which he effortlessly shared with all, including his loved ones and the countless students and colleagues whose lives he touched. Hector possessed a profound and inviting presence that left an indelible mark on all those fortunate enough to cross his path. Whether it was during his travels to his cherished paradise, Isla Mujeres, Mexico, with family in Texas, at home in Williamsburg, or his recent years spent in Maryland, Hector built meaningful connections and showed care and generosity to everyone he encountered. Kind, intelligent, and possessing a unique ability to brighten the spirits of others, Hector Guerrero was a beacon of light, with a life fully lived. He will be deeply missed.
He is survived by his daughter, Teresa Hamm (David), son, Roberto Guerrero, grandchildren McKayla, Lili, Harper, Owen, and Charlie, brother, Carlos Guerrero (Yolanda), sister, Martha Mendez (Albert), ex-wife Kathy Roach, and his beloved partner of 18 years, Carole Lafferman Fitzwater.
A memorial service will be held at the Mason School of Business at William & Mary on January 20th, 2024 at 11:00 am. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Doey’s House c/o Hospice of Washington County at 11370 Caring Pathway Ln, Hagerstown, MD 21742. Arrangements were done with J.L. Davis Funeral Home, Smithsburg, MD, and expressions of sympathy can be offered to the family online at www.jldavisfh.com.
Sincerely,
Peggy