William Hollingsworth Whyte

About

American urbanist, sociologist, organizational analyst, journalist, and people-watcher. His 1956 book about corporate culture, The Organization Man, sold over two million copies.

Before Fame

He graduated early from Middletown, Delaware's St. Andrew's School. He graduated from Princeton University in 1939. He then served in Marine Corps between 1941 and 1945 and fought at Guadalcanal.

Trivia

In 1952, he coined the term "Groupthink": "We are not talking about mere instinctive conformity . . . . What we are talking about is a rationalized conformity-an open, articulate philosophy which holds that group values are not only expedient, but right and good as well."

Family Life

He was born William Hollingsworth White in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He married fashion designer Jenny Bell Bechtel in 1964. They had one daughter, Alexandra Whyte.

Associated With

His book The Organization Man put him in the company of cultural critic Marshall McLuhan, and complemented the fictional story of Sloan Wilson's corporate world in The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit. As an urbanist, he championed the ideas of public spaces activist Jane Jacobs.