Dr. Edward Cundiff, the John A. Beck Centennial Professor Emeritus in Communication was a distinguished member of both the School of Business and the College of Communication faculty at The University of Texas at Austin. His contributions were many and invaluable. He was instrumental in building two academic departments, the Department of Marketing and the Department of Advertising. Both departments achieved top national reputations for the excellence of their programs and the quality of their faculty under his direction.

Dr. Cundiff received a B.A. degree in economics from Stanford University in 1941.  He received a M.B.A. degree in 1942 and an Ed.D. degree from Stanford University in 1952. He was also a Ford Fellow at the Harvard School of Business Administration in 1956 and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at Berkeley and at the University of Michigan. 

Dr. Cundiff came to UT in 1958, where he served as the chair of the Department of Marketing from 1958-1964 and from 1967-1971. Upon retirement from the Department of Marketing, Dr. Cundiff accepted an appointment at Emory University as the Charles H. Carlstadt Professor of Marketing. Dr. Cundiff returned to UT in 1987 to serve as chair of the Department of Advertising from 1987-1991. He was named the John H. Beck Centennial Professor in Communication from 1987-1994, and after his retirement he was named the John H. Beck Centennial Professor Emeritus in Communication from 1994-96.

Dr. Cundiff was a prolific and distinguished author. He wrote seven books and numerous articles. From 1973-76, he was the editor of the Journal of Marketing.  Dr. Cundiff was an outstanding scholar and an excellent administrator. His former colleagues and students remember him with much affection and respect. He has inspired and mentored many world–class marketing and advertising academicians and his name will forever be tied to UT as a leader and a builder of our academic legacy in marketing and in advertising.

Dr. Cundiff passed away on November 8, 2006.