ABSTRACT
In May 1889, 2,209 people were killed when a dam burst in the Appalachian Mountains above Johnstown, Pennsylvania.1 The dam was owned by a sports club with a membership primarily of wealthy financiers such as Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Mellon, and Henry Clay Frick. No club member ever accepted any moral responsibility for the disaster, and no lawsuit against the club was ever successful. Studies of the incident have documented many instances in which people and organizations failed to take responsibility for the dam, failed to disclose defects in the design and maintenance of the dam, failed to plan for the foreseeable risks of disaster, shirked their professional responsibilities during the disaster, made hard choices that resulted in the rescue of some victims and death of others, and generally failed to acknowledge personal and organizational responsibility for the consequences of the disaster.
