In Memoriam: Professor John A. Haslem

John A. Haslem, professor emeritus of finance, the founding academic affairs dean and founding chair of the finance department at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, passed away on Oct. 8, 2023.

Haslem joined the university’s faculty in 1969 and established the first security analysis course in a collegiate business school dedicated to mutual funds, for which he would later receive the Panhellenic Association's "Outstanding Teacher Award."

He was a renowned researcher, respected by colleagues in the field for his mutual funds research focusing on financial issues, regulation, expense ratio, normative transparency of disclosure and other policy issues.

During his career, Haslem produced over 150 publications, including more than 65 books and articles appearing in the Journal of Investing, Journal of Index Investing, Institutional Investor’s “A Guide to Small-Cap Investing” and “Exchange-Traded Funds: New Approaches and Global Outreach,” Journal of Indexes, Financial Services Review, Journal of Wealth Management and others. He also served as a consultant to NASA, the U.S. Department of Justice, and numerous banks and law firms.

Haslem’s book, “Mutual Funds: Risk and Performance Analysis for Decision Making (Blackwell Publishers: Oxford, 2003),” was touted by industry professionals and finance scholars as a “must-read” due to his strong academic background in investments and balanced view of the financial markets.

“This marvelous compendium of mutual fund information is the answer to the prayers of serious investors who want to dig beneath the superficial to reach the fundamental,” said John C. Bogle, founder and former CEO of The Vanguard Group, in 2003.

Over the years, Haslem’s work positively impacted thousands of students in the classroom at the Smith School, as well as at his previous stops at the University of North Carolina and the  University of Wisconsin.

William “Bill” Longbrake, PhD ’76, an executive in residence and senior policy advisor for the Smith School’s Center for Financial Policy, is one of the former students whose career trajectory was profoundly shaped by Haslem’s lessons and guidance.

The two began their decades-long friendship at the University of Wisconsin in 1968 while Longbrake earned his MBA degree. The following year, Longbrake followed Haslem to the University of Maryland, where he enrolled in the Doctor of Business Administration program, became a full-time instructor and kicked off a career that would eventually come full circle upon returning to the Smith School’s classrooms as an instructor in 2009. 

“Jack taught me how to be a meticulous researcher. The first article we published together in the Journal of Finance was a note about an error in someone else’s previously published article,” says Longbrake. “Jack was responsible for launching me on a very successful professional career.”