Richard A. Compton (July 9, 1926 – 1993) of Ithaca, New York was an American educator, hotelman and expert in the facilities management within resort and entertainment industry.
Trained as an engineer and not as a hospitality service provider, Compton was among the first to organize the emerging study of hotel management along the same rigorous research criteria applied to other academic disciplines.
The report concluded, “unless the nuclear disaster is so devastating and bewildering that the population is incapable of its usual adaptive behavior and willingness to cooperate, in our opinion, competent water and food management should be able to guide most of the people through a shelter experience.”[3] In subsequent projects, the team proposed training regimes in licensed fall out shelters to achieve the “preservation and development of the basic social objectives .
.” of American culture[4] and that “[c]omplaining occupants need to be reminded frequently that all men can endure much more than they think they can, if they will have the will to do it, especially for the common good.”[5] During the Second World War, Professor Compton served in the U.S.
Compton also joined the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at Cornell University, and through that organization was a member of the Irving Literary Society.