Donald G. Malcolm, 88; led Cal State L.A.’s College of Business and Economics

Donald G. Malcolm, 88, dean emeritus of the College of Business and Economics at Cal State L.A. from 1972 to 1981, died June 18 at his home in Santa Monica.

Malcolm, who made several innovations to the curriculum during his tenure on campus, was also a member and then chairman of the Santa Monica Planning Commission.

After retiring to the Hawaiian island of Maui in 1981, where he lived for many years, he remained actively engaged in planning issues, founding the Maui Economic Development Board to promote technological advances in a community heavily reliant on tourism and agriculture. He was associated with the board until the mid-1990s.

Born in Indianapolis, Malcolm earned a bachelor’s degree at Purdue University in 1940. He spent the World War II years serving as a radioman on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. After the war, he returned to Purdue and earned a master’s degree in industrial engineering.

His teaching career began in the 1950s at UC Berkeley, where he was an assistant professor of industrial engineering. While at Berkeley, he became the first president of the newly formed national organization the American Institute of Industrial Engineers.