Although I’m not a former student or an academic, Jack certainly had a pivotal role in my career development. Jack encouraged me to finish my undergraduate degree while working full time at CISR. He knew just what to say to make me understand just how important it was, and supported me throughout the two years of my accelerated program. In fact, Jack came to my graduation ceremony, and sat with my family and friends. The proud look on his face as he congratulated me afterwards is one of my favorite memories of Jack. We at MIT CISR are fortunate to have learned from the best and to be able to take care of Jack’s wonderful legacy.

—Chris Foglia

I admired Jack, Jack’s work, and Jack’s impact on the field from afar throughout much of my professional journey. It was an incredible gift that I was able to work directly with Jack in recent years as I began to work with CISR in both informal and then formal ways. I am grateful for the large impact he had on my work in such a short time and the grace of those interactions.

—Barb Wixom

I am so saddened to hear about Jack’s passing. Jack had a life-changing influence on my academic career and my life. It was auditing his MBA class in my first year at MIT that opened a whole new world of strategy and management research to me. I am forever grateful for Jack taking a chance on me and making me a part of the CISR family – a family that I am very proud to be part of. He was not only the founder of the center but also responsible for creating a special DNA of practice-relevant research that lives on not only in many of us but also in our students (and I hope in their students). His financial support and encouragement to pursue my interest were critical throughout out my PhD years and I will always remember Jack for his big heart and his big smile.

—Natalia Levina

Jack was deeply committed to CISR, Sloan, and the IS field, and his contributions here have been immensely important. He was also a wonderful colleague and mentor to many of us at MIT, always supportive, encouraging, and generous with his time and ideas. We miss him.

—Wanda Orlikowski

I as well feel our scholarly niche much emptier than it was a few days ago. I first interacted with Jack as a Sloan master’s student in 1969 (not realizing at the time the full value of the interaction!). Over the years, his friendship and thought-leadership greatly influenced my thinking and the direction of my academic career. This continues today, with Jack’s ideas being prominent in a revision on which I am currently working.

—Bob Zmud

I am truly saddened to hear about the passing of Jack. I will always think of him as a great teacher and scholar but more than anything I will remember him for his great humanity. With all of his accomplishments he always found the time and place to make each of us feel special. He was a great man, a person who inspired a generation of academics and practitioners and someone that changed the lives of those that knew him. He will be missed but never forgotten.

—John Henderson

The loss of Jack Rockart extinguishes a bright flame of innovation, creativity and thought leadership in the field of management research and practice. As I think back on the launching of CISR and the MIT “powers that be” telling us that CISR could not succeed and they did not want to support it, I smile and think about the fast one we put over on them!

Jack’s ability to see marriage of academic research and practice was brilliant and served as the foundation of how CISR would be designed, and became the basis of its huge success and influence. Other academic organizations have not been successful in replicating the CISR model and a great part of that has to do with the lack of an individual who embodied the ideas and worked tirelessly to “make it so.”

Jack’s influence in management thinking and his formidable legacy through research and publishing, students taught and mentored, and his wonderful personal presence will keep his name and spirit alive for a very long time.

—Chris Bullen

Two Jack Rockart stories. During the ERP craze in the 1990s, MIT got the SAP bug and was convinced that it had to implement SAP across the campus. Jack wrote a memo laying out why that was a monumentally stupid idea – he argued that implementing a very centralized command-and-control system in a very decentralized organization was doomed to failure. MIT didn’t listen, and the result was a mess. It was just like Jack to see through the hype and cut to the heart of the issue.

I had the unique honor of playing Jack Rockart in a movie. Some of you may remember it – it was for one of his anniversaries, right around 1990 or 1991. I studied Jack for a few weeks, trying to learn his mannerisms, his habits, and his walk. (To walk like Jack Rockart, start with the Groucho Marx walk and back it off about 10%.) But what really seemed to resonate with people was the way he said “Terrific!” I worked on Jack’s “Terrific” for a few days till I had it down. To me, that “Terrific” is how I will always remember Jack – his way of listening, encouraging, and – when you deserved it – congratulating.

—Dave Robertson

Jack was such a terrific person, keen intellect, and clear thinker who was always willing to listen and advise. He was a great inspiration for me. I first heard Jack speak at ICIS 1989 in Boston. His passionate call for more focus on IT value realization and for line managers to “take the lead” had a significant influence on my research and teaching interests. That CISR will celebrate its 40th birthday later this year is testimony to his many remarkable professional talents and charming personal attributes.

Sorry Jack- I never shared any of that with you in person. Rest in peace.

—John Mooney

I’m deeply saddened to hear about Jack’s passing. Jack was everything you could ask for in a mentor, colleague and leader of our field. He touched the lives of so many students, executives, MIT colleagues and people at other schools, was much loved and will be long remembered. As I reflect on Jack’s influence on me and our field I am filled with gratitude and pride. Jack with a handful of others pioneered our field and did much to make it impactful and mainstream. He co-founded MIT CISR in 1974 and I know was pleased to see his legacy live on with all of us in 2014. We are planning to have a celebration of 40 years of MIT CISR at this year’s MIT CISR Summer Session in June and that will be a great opportunity to celebrate Jack’s impact. Most importantly Jack was a great friend and colleague and example of MIT excellence – a place he loved.

One more reflection … When I was on sabbatical at MIT CISR in 1992 I was thinking about approaching a large vendor for funding to do research on IT infrastructure. As I was pondering how to structure the research project I went to see Jack and ask if he had some advice for me. He looked at me with that quizzical Jack smile and said “yes I do … just make it interesting”. And I have tried to follow that advice ever since.

—Peter Weill

Like others, I was very sorry to hear that Jack had passed away. He was a pioneer in our field melding research and teaching with practice and thereby establishing credibility of research into information systems and their management in both academe and business.
I first met Jack by chance in LA in 1984. Knowing of his research and interested in CISR, I requested a follow up meeting. We then met that evening for a drink and a chat in the Beverly Wilshire. Jack encouraged me to create a research centre similar to CISR in Oxford and gave advice on what to do and what not to do. That was the quintessential Jack; enthusiastic, motivating, supportive, generous and sound.
We went on to collaborate on several fronts over the years.I owe him a lot and, like us all, I will miss him.

—Michael Earl

He was a brilliant man and surprisingly insightful. He will be missed.

I finished my Master’s degree at Sloan in 1970. The entire faculty was superb, but Jack stood above the rest when it was time to put theory to real application in the business world. His methods were the best – solid research applied in a way that was both valuable and understandable. Jack’s classes were always over-enrolled, and for good reason. Much of what I (and many of my classmates) took away from two years at Sloan came from him.
Much later, we happened to buy a home just a “few doors down” from Jack and Elise in Weston. They became very dear friends. Jack was a pillar in his community and his church. His wisdom and judgment were always sought and valued by those who knew him.
In so many ways, he made the world a better place and improved the lives of those who were fortunate to know him.

—C. G. Hoffman

Jack was always kind and generous in sharing his ideas and passion for his work. I had the privilege of taking one of his courses, and discovered him to be an excellent and thoughtful teacher. He will surely be missed by all who knew him or had a brief acquaintance with him over his many years at MIT.

Michael Scott Morton
Feb 6 2014
When we started CISR Jack was one of it’s earliest and most effective members.Not only because of his ability to identify important merging problems in the MIS world, but also on his insistence on the active involvement of all of our corporates sponsors. this was not at all common at the time and became a key strength of CISR. He also had a discerning eye and was able to identify superb people and persuade them to join the CISR mss in; Chris Bullen and Jeannie being two outstanding examples, and later of course Peter Weill.
I could write so much more at this poignant moment, but I know Jack would really appreciate all the other comments on this blog, and all I can do is to echo them. He left a real, lasting, memorial with all of us.
—M.S. Scott Morton

I first met Jack when I came to Sloan in 1991. From my first interactions with him and continuing when I moved to Sloan executive education, Jack was a wise mentor, both personally and professionally.

Among his many accomplishments, Jack led the design of the IT for non-IT Executives course, which quickly became an important part of the Sloan portfolio.

Jack had a huge impact on Sloan, on his field, and on me personally. I treasure my memories of him.

— Bob Halperin

I learned a day after by a colleague that Jack had passed away.

I am sorry to hear this, Jack to me was one of the driving forces behind my MBA at MIT, he gave me a lot of wisdom and help during my time at Sloan and while I helped him at CISR and while at his classes as his assistant.

I am going to miss Jack, a great person, a great contributor to Management, to Information Technology and to many people and companies, in sum a great human being.

I hope that Elise, his lovely wife, Scott and the rest of his family accepts my deepest condolences on their great loss.

With respect.

— Jorge Treviño

Very Sad. He was a wonderful, generous, and savvy man with an amazing ability to distill a lot of information into what really mattered. His vision of the role of IS research in industry (that he used so successfully to build CISR) completely changed my understanding of academia, and I know I’m not the only one. I have so many visions of him, with his positive stance, listening attentively to my disorganized thoughts, and then distilling the one or two quite good ideas and reflecting those back to me so I could use them. He brought a lot to our lives in big ways and small ways as well.

— Dale Goodhue

Three things stick in my mind about Jack — First, he had such great gravitas! Surely this must have been part of his success with executives. Second, he was such a great listener! Even when I was a doctoral student, he really, really listened to me, which is amazing considering how little I knew about anything. Third, Jack was always, always positive. Even if he had to deliver bad news, he left me feeling good about myself and my work. Did I remember to thank you, Jack? I hope so!

—Cynthia Beath

I am so sorry to hear this sad news. It seems like yesterday that Jack and I first met. It’s hard to believe that it has been almost 30 years now. Jack was one of the key people who defined the field of MIS and he will be sorely missed. I am going to be in India doing a reunion program for HBS in late February/early March so will not be able to attend the service.

I will keep all of you who are Jack’s friends and family in my thoughts and prayers as we mourn Jack’s passing
—Lynda Applegate

Katrina Pugh
Feb 9, 2014

I first met Jack Rockart just before I started at Sloan in the summer of 1994. I had been working for an IT analyst house at the time, and he invited me to speak to his senior executive forum. I was hardly the scholar that they had come to expect, but, with his and Jeanne Ross’ coaching, I think I showed up well. Maybe he was testing me out. He them let me take his courses when most of them weren’t open to first-year MS students.

When I came to Sloan I thought I wanted to be a CIO. But what I learned, studying CIOs with Jack, was instead that I wanted to be like Jack.

Now that I am in Academia, I often think of him commanding the room with exuberance. (Yes I do think a good word for it is “gravitas” — but in its most generous form.)
Katrina Pugh MS/MBA96

It is quite beautiful to read the touching expressions of so many regarding Jack.

Though I undoubtedly knew him far less well than many of you, I was always moved by his kindness and genuine enthusiasm. In a time when I knew very few of you in IT, Jack was so gracious in inviting me to share our work and so real in his appreciation that I can say, in all honesty, it opened my mind to the many connections that span our diverse areas of professional interest and expertise.

When all is said and done, he was a fine person, a real human being. l, like you all, will miss him and the simple possibility that when I turn a corner, I might just bump into him and his wonderfully warm greeting.

Peter Senge

Discerning, analytic, farsighted, generous, caring, and my dissertation advisor. These are the words that come to mind when I think of Jack Rockart. His keen understanding of strategy produced CSFs and of information technology, CISR. He appointed me as GRA in CISR in 1974, after we defined a topic that met his needs for CISR and my dissertation goals, while a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education: CISR Report #4. That experience, bringing me into the IT world, using my focus on organization behavior, changed my life. Ten years later (1986), I served as the liaison between CISR’s big “2000” project and the International Management Institute (IMI) in Geneva, Switzerland. And ten years after that, as a professor at The Ohio State University, for ten years I taught a graduate seminar on the strategic use of technology in higher education, among my other courses. I treasure the last visit I had with him, maybe 5 years ago. He leaves a wonderful legacy. He was simply “terrific”!
Ada Demb, Emeritus, The Ohio State University

I posted this in my “guest column” on the Wall Street Journal’s CIO Journal:

Jack Rockart passed away last week. For CIOs of every stripe, he and his research center probably provided more good research-based advice—always grounded in practice—than any other academic institution in the world. Those of us in IT should note his passing and be thankful for his existence and his ideas.

This is not his obituary, but I should say a few words about his contributions so you’ll understand how important he was. Jack got his Ph.D. at MIT after an earlier career helping African governments with computers. After getting his degree he began to teach accounting at MIT, but by 1974 he was Director of the new Center for Information Systems Research (pronounced “Scissor” if you are not familiar with it).

This forty-year old institution was the first academic research center I know of to be sponsored by companies and created with the idea that academic research could help IT executives solve their toughest problems. Jack was not your classic academic; he cared not about influencing other professors (as do most business school researchers), but rather about influencing managers and executives. CISR took on this mission with great enthusiasm, and Jack led it until 2000, when Peter Weill took over. CISR still thrives, with over 90 sponsors around the world, and continues to do great work on IT architecture and governance, big data, and now data monetization.

Jack’s own most prominent work involved finding out what information organizations need to inform decision-making—one of the earliest perspectives on what we now call “analytics.” His work on “critical success factors” led to a popular Harvard Business Review article, and he wrote books on that topic as well as one on the direct use of computers by senior executives. Although those was his strongest personal interests, he always had great general advice about where CIOs should be focusing their attention and energies. He was often in demand for executive education and consulting engagements too—a strong sign that his ideas were judged useful. Yet he always seemed to find time to speak with colleagues and junior researchers—and I was very junior when I sought him out several times for advice.

For those of us who have found academic research in business to be, well, overly academic, Jack was a beacon and a model. He showed that research doesn’t have to be narrow and esoteric, and that business school research can actually influence the practice of business. His was an unusual career path for academia, in that he never achieved (or, I believe, aspired to) tenure or a full professorship at MIT, despite remaining there for over three decades and teaching lots of students. But I am sure he died knowing that he—along with his colleagues and successors at CISR—had exercised great influence on an important and fast-evolving set of topics and people at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st.

– Tom Davenport

What an impact Jack had on many both personally and professionally. I met him the first time when I interviewed ABD at MIT. He always remembered me at conferences so struck me as unassuming.
He played a vital role in engaging academia and practice. His views on IT management have shaped our field. I taught his CSFs for decades and much of his work really resonated with both IT professionals but most importantly with engaging senior management. Jack was a Society for Information Management (SIM) VP of Academic Affairs for many years. He was a catalyst and the initial champion of the SIM IT Workforce Research Project which came about as he and I brainstormed at a Chapter Summit almost ten years ago. On top of it all he was incredibly smart, patient at listening to ideas, encouraging, had that great broad smile and was truly a nice guy. He certainly has a wonderful legacy not only of his tangible work and service to the field but most importantly to developing so many leaders who in turn have developed more. My condolences to Jack’s family, colleagues, and friends.
Kate Kaiser

Jack’s influence on our lives has been so profound, it is hard to describe. His lessons have become so much a part of who we are, that they have passed out of consciousness; they have become second nature.

Jack was a powerful and potentially intimidating presence. A single comment carried a great deal of weight. You always knew that he didn’t make comments flippantly or lightly. His messages were clean and simple: “identify and focus on what is critical; take your audience from where they are to where you want to leave them.” Twenty years later, the lessons continue to sink in.

Jack’s style was emulated by many, duplicated by none. As graduate students, we spent long hours observing and discussing his style, his persona, his quirks, his professional image. We analyzed him, talked about him, imitated him, and collectively marveled at the secret magical ingredient that seemed to live within him. In the end, we eventually found our own voices, our own approaches to academia, to research, to life. But a piece of Jack’s spirit continues to travel with all of us.

His strengths were many and varied. A short list would have to include the ability to orchestrate without intruding; to cut through chaotic complexity; to extract the essential components of a messy situation; to translate the world of the academic into the world of the practitioner and vise versa; to have a foot in each camp, and yet to maintain balance, neutrality, and independence at same time. His focused clarity, his acute listening, his interpersonal sensitivity, his blending of inquiry with action, left their mark on any project of which he was a part.

His powerful intellect notwithstanding, Jack was a reality tester, a pointer toward the realistic, the pragmatic, the concrete. Theory was interesting to Jack, but only insofar as it had practical application. He was able to look at research and rapidly determine its practical potential. His approach to running the Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) was an exemplary model of academic-practitioner collaboration. His style — inclusive, respectful, and balanced — ensured that all points of view were respected and that all voices were heard.

Jack’s vitality and contagious excitement about his work radiated through the entire CISR organization. On a Monday morning at the office, you could practically feel the energy vibrating around him.

May the memories of Jack’s energy, vitality, and charisma, continue to fuel all of those who were touched by his magic. He will not be forgotten.

– Andy Trice and Michael Epstein

We were saddened to hear of Jack’s passing too. Jack’s influence had also shaped the development of IMARC in Singapore. When IMARC started in the early 1990’s, Jack and his leadership of CISR was our role model, especially the focus on IS management issues targeted at CIOs. Jack graciously and generously guided and mentored us, a group of young and inexperienced IS academics in our start-up, and served on IMARC’s International Advisory Panel for many years. He worked with us to have the first CISR Summer Session in Asia in collaboration with IMARC, and personally flew half way round the world to helm the program. He was a great friend who encouraged us to pursue our aspiration to have an impact on IT leaders in Singapore and Asia. We will remember him with much respect and appreciation.
– Neo Boon Siong, Christina Soh, and Sia Siew Kien.

Jack Rockart made significant contributions to the practice of IT management with his concise analysis of key issues and critical success factors. He impacted the careers of many CIO’s and their organizations and made us all better for it. He was also a dear friend and I will miss our meetings on my frequent visits to MIT.

I used him many times in the strategic planning process and was a sponsor of CISR. However, the most fun I had with Jack was when he asked me to help him out with a video he was doing that reviewed various case studies on how organizations dealt with some major IT issues. Originally he and Michael Scott-Morton were going use the “Siskel and Ebert” format to comment on the cases, but Michael had a conflict at the last minute and Jack asked if I would fill in. Thinking this would not be too difficult I agreed. I was in Los Angeles and the taping was in Dallas, so I flew in that morning and had a return flight for early that afternoon. Little did I know how difficult a task this would be and with the many takes and my inexperience, I didn’t leave until the last flight that evening. Jack was great, but at the end I couldn’t help from breaking out laughing every time I looked at Jack’s twinkling eyes and mischievous grin.

You are one of a kind and will be missed by all who had the pleasure to know you.

—DuWayne Peterson

Jack and I began to work together in the 1980’s. Although we did not know each other well until then, we had in common the MBA at HBS, the PhD at Sloan, and time in Africa.
As an Advisory Board member for Index, Jack recommended us to senior management clients and worked with us developing conclusions on projects. His responses to our findings were often quick and short. At first I wondered if he saw what I thought were important complexities and subtleties in the client situation. But I learned either to be more articulate and specific, leading to Jack’s reflecting and modifying his thoughts, or to recognize that his initial reaction was the right one. Jack taught me how to structure an argument, and also the power of succinct insight. In addition to being valuable in consulting, these were habits of mind applicable to case- and anecdote-based research. Jack would agree, I think, that such habits are vital for producing useful and sustained conclusions from research no matter how much purely quantitative analysis may contribute.
I remember watching Jack teach a class of Sloan MBA students in his popular course on IT management in the 1990’s. He had invited me to join the Sloan faculty as an adjunct to teach the course the following year. I was at first astounded at how he conducted the class: conclusions and points coming as much from him as from the students. It was in contrast to my experience as a student and teacher at HBS which had been more in the Socratic style. It took me a few classes of my own to realize how different the context and student culture were at Sloan compared to HBS. Jack knew how to do it the HBS way, but had perfected a style that fit for Sloanies. He knew how to think about teaching and enable learning to come both the front of the room and as well as from within the room.
Jack and I talked about working in cultures so different from ours, institutional ones and societal ones. I think our idealism for positive change in societies, organizations, and individuals had been tempered toward pragmatism, toward guiding change with a combination of the analytical as well as a commitment from the heart. I believe Jack had an ability to distance himself from the ideal, the ideological, and the hopeless, in favor of getting the problem at hand defined and solved. The virtue was to serve as the arbiter and analyst rather than the protagonist in a political matter, be it national or organizational.
I liked and trusted Jack. I could talk to him about his and my relationships with clients and colleagues, about what was behind particular biases in an article he had asked me to review, and so on. I always knew Jack’s word was his bond. I have never known anyone who was as clear and sustained in his support of someone whose work he respected. His interests were in getting things done and doing right by those who disagreed.
For me and many others Jack was a friend and a professional model. He is as dear and lasting to us now that he is gone as when he was with us.
– Chuck Gibson

It was an honor to work with Jack for more than 12 years. The respect given to him by students, educators, industry executives and Sloan staff was equal to the respect he gave them. .568’s perennial over-enrollment, the constant stream of potential and current students walking the length of CISR’s space to speak with him or get thesis or doctoral advice (discounting those coming for handwriting analysis for his often somewhat illegible comments on their papers!), the long list of industry executives seeking his wisdom…while these examples all spoke to his academic and research brilliance, anyone who worked or spent any significant time with him knew that his heart belonged to his family. It was very special to see that unabashed love. Just prior to Jamie’s immigrating and our marriage, Jack sat me down in his office to ask if Jamie and I were going to have a double ring ceremony (which we were) and to encourage us to do so if we were not. He went on to tell me how much it had meant to him to wear his wedding ring all those years and carry that symbol of his and Elise’s love and marriage wherever he was. It was truly special but only one of many special Jack moments that I will always treasure. We all have a list of them, I am sure.

Deb Small
CISR 1988-2000

I met Jack for the first time only 3 years ago when I joined MIT CISR. Having known his seminal work long before that point in time, I felt even more honored to meet him on the day I gave my job talk presentation at CISR. I still remember telling my wife on the phone that evening “I can’t believe I just met Jack Rockart.” I was greatly impressed by how approachable and kind a person as famous as him can be. It has been a true privilege to work with him. And while I knew him for a much shorter time period than most who commented, I share with them that I’ll remember him forever.

I joined CISR after Jack had retired but then he was still an active member of our research meetings and events. Jack would listen intently at research meetings and every once in a while, he would say “Good stuff.” We would know we were on the track of something interesting. Those “good stuff” comments didn’t come often but when they did, they were motivating.

Stephanie Woerner

I was very saddened to hear just today of Jack’s passing. As a PhD student in MIS at MIT from 1975-1979, I quickly got to know Jack quite well. Sloan then had a tradition of requiring PhD students to undertake a “Part 1” and then a “Part 2” research project, ramping up toward the full thesis. I was especially fortunate to have come under Jack’s wing early on, and he agreed to supervise my Past 2 project. I remember two things vividly from that experience. When I had produced a reasonable draft of my project, I gave it to Jack to look through, and asked for his feedback. I assumed, because he was ridiculously busy, that he’d just glance through it and give me a few perfunctory comments. When I met with him a few days later I was flabbergasted… he had actually read the whole paper thoroughly, underlined parts, circled other parts, made margin comments, and then sat with me for over an hour going through my stuff and giving me his thoughts. Never once did he seem “professor-ish”, rather, inquisitive, helpful, and all-round supportive. I often used Jack’s approach to this sort of thing as a source of inspiration and a kind of model, later in my own academic career.

Sometime after that, Jack had been invited to go to Toronto to speak to a large gathering of bank executives, and to talk to them about some of his current research, which at that time involved issues of centralization versus decentralization of information systems. A few days before the event Jack found he couldn’t go, and asked me to go in his place (and give his talk!). Again I was flabbergasted, at the very thought that he trusted me to do that. (I was also scared to death at the thought.) In the end the whole thing went really well. While I could never be Jack, the next best thing was to have such good, interesting, and most importantly, relevant material from Jack to present to the Canadian bank executives.

The information systems academic field includes over 3000 individuals today (it was just a couple hundred back when Jack took over as Director of CISR in 1976). Many thousands more are managers or executives in this field. Each one of us owes a sincere thank-you to Jack Rockart.

Sid Huff

John F. Rockart has been an inspiration source for me. Two contributions of him, “The CEO goes on
Line” (HBR, 1982) and “Executive Support Systems” (1988), were the seed of my doctoral thesis about Executive Information Systems in Spanish Organizations. In addition, in spite of the geographical distance, Professor Rockart was always very supportive and helpful. I would like to express condolences to his family. May he rest in peace.

José L. Roldán
Universidad de Sevilla (Spain)

Dear Jack:

No one was ever more enthusiastic about the work of others and more excited by their success.

No one was more willing to put his personal capital at the disposal of others.

No one worked more tirelessly for an institution in which his contributions were misunderstood.

But your contributions were appreciated by all of us who worked with you and we are all the better for your guidance, support, and generosity.

Michael Treacy

Jack Rockart was one of a kind. I almost joined CISR as a MIT faculty member in 1976 but went elsewhere. I often reflect on how my career would have been different. And missing that daily interaction with Jack and the others in CISR causes me to pause. Fun, challenging, insightful, curious… are just some of Jack’s strengths. He is greatly missed.
– Richard Hackathorn

When I enrolled in both the MIT Sloan School and the Technology & Policy Program in 1992 I was keen on finding out how IT could and would revolutionize business and management. What a joy and a privilege it was to discover Jack Rockart. He had an “open door” policy and I took advantage of it by setting up numerous meetings and interactions with him to get his advice. I vividly remember the nervous excitement leading up to those sessions and the intense discussions! Jack was always approachable and full of fresh ideas and challenges. Yet he always had practical ideas on how to ensure technology had a real world impact. To this day his passion and encouragement pushing me to make an impact with IT, influences our company’s approach to the corporate and government sectors in West Africa and South East Asia – even after more than 20 years! Thank you and Go Well Friend. Tunde Fafunwa

I worked at CISR for two months after graduating at Sloan in 1981. It was a great pleasure to have him teach our class and then later to work with him. A really inspiring person.
My condolences to his family,
Mark Jonikas

I got to know Jack when I was faculty in the IT group at Sloan. I joined not long before he retired. But soon I realized what a profound influence and impact he had on the direction and vitality and productivity of the Sloan IT group and of the whole field of IT management. Tho’ my area of research was not close to things he had expertise in, he was nevertheless an inspiration and quite encouraging. I always enjoyed my interactions with him, incl. his focus and his sense of humor. Jack, you will be missed as a colleague and as a person; thanks for being you.
–Benjamin Grosof

Sorry, forgot to sign the last comment “I got to know Jack when I was faculty …”:
– Benjamin Grosof

Professor Rockart was my favorite teacher at Sloan. Going over case studies with him and getting at the management crux of the matter while weeding through the details was fascinating and fun. My first job out of Sloan was working on an Executive Information System and I can credit having been in Jack’s class as instrumental in making that happen. He was the epitome of what a teacher should be – smart, kind, funny and interesting! I will always remember him fondly.

Leslie Lafer McCafferty