Thomas K. Glennan Jr., 69, education researcher

Thomas K. Glennan Jr., 69, education researcher

Thomas K. Glennan Jr., an architect of Rand Corp.’s first education work in the late 1960s and a senior adviser for education policy in the company’s Washington office, died April 2 after a nine-month battle with metastatic melanoma at the Hospice of Northern Virginia. He was 69.

Mr. Glennan joined Rand in 1957 as a summer intern and continued as adjunct staff until becoming an employee in 1961. His research spanned a variety of policy planning issues in such areas as education, manpower training, energy, environmental enforcement, demonstration program management in health and human services, and military research and development.

Through 1997, he led Rand’s analytic effort in support of the New American Schools Development Corp. He also examined potential national policies in support of the use of technology in elementary and secondary education. He recently led an effort to develop plans for coherent, long-term programs of research and development in reading and mathematics education for the Office of Education Research.

“Tom was a towering figure at Rand. His prolific work embodied precisely the qualities for which Rand is known: integrity, objectivity, creativity and insight,” said Bruce Hoffman, Rand’s vice president for external affairs and director of its Washington office.

Mr. Glennan spent nearly his entire career at Rand, leaving only to go into public service early in his career. From 1969 to 1972, he was with the Office of Research and Evaluation in the Office of Economic Opportunity as director and then assistant director, and from 1972 to 1974, he was the first director of the National Institute of Education within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

He was the study director for the Study Project on Social R&D at the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council from 1974 to 1976.

His father, T. Keith Glennan, was a member of Rand’s board of trustees, and his son, Stuart, was a member of the research staff in the late 1980s.

Mr. Glennan is survived by his wife, Martha; two sons, T. Keith Glennan III and Stuart; and three grandsons.

Memorial donations can be made to the American Cancer Society or to the Church of the Holy Cross, 2455 Gallows Road, Dunn Loring, VA.