August 15, 2008

A Born Dean

By ALLIE GRASGREEN

It may be nominative determinism, but he swears it's coincidental.

James W. Dean Jr., who began work last month as dean of the business school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says his apt surname did not influence his career choice. On the contrary, Mr. Dean says, he always considered his name a disadvantage in his field, especially when he and his friends would joke that if he ever became a dean, his title would sound "pretty dumb."

Nominative determinism,