Inducted: 2010

Born in Blackpool, England, near Rochdale, David Thompson grew up with co-op blood in his veins. Thompson has devoted his life to the cooperative movement in California, nationally and internationally. He has been a leader nationally at NCB where as the first co-op employee he helped set the bank up. At NCBA he led efforts to bring freedoms to cooperatives behind the Iron Curtain and legalize blacks joining cooperatives in South Africa. Thompson and his business partner, Luke Watkins, have developed 650 units of nonprofit, mutual and cooperative housing. Thompson is the author of “Weavers of Dreams” and a prolific writer on cooperatives. Thompson is currently President of the Twin Pines Cooperative Foundation. TPCF’s innovative board has created Cooperative Community Funds for 30 U.S. cooperatives. In his cooperative activities he has been supported by his wife Ann Evans and their daughter Hatley.

Melbah Smith

Inducted: 2009

Melbah Smith has worked for nearly 40 years to start and strengthen cooperatives in some of the most impoverished, isolated and ignored communities in the United States. She is a giant in the cooperative community.

With the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund and the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives she worked as a community organizer and co-op developer to bring health care, economic development and social justice to rural people in some of the poorest areas of the country. As Executive Director of the Mississippi Center for Cooperative Development, she helped form more than 25 cooperatives and built an invaluable financial support network for co-ops that includes state agencies and private funding sources.

Smith is known as a trusted and visionary leader who challenges others to dream and works to ensure that they fulfill those dreams. After Hurricane Katrina she helped form Louisiana’s first worker-owned business, which has created 20 jobs and will provide health care to the poor and elderly in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward.

She also helped found and grow CooperationWorks, an innovative national co-op of cooperative development practitioners, and inspired many others to embrace the cooperative model through her passion, insight and enthusiasm.

Edward Slettom

Inducted: 2009

Educator. Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture. Association leader. Statesman. Champion of cooperatives. Throughout his career and well into retirement, Edward Slettom has embodied the spirit of cooperation.

As Executive Director of the Minnesota Association of Cooperatives (MAC) for 30 years, Slettom was an insightful and politically savvy leader. He helped establish a Statewide Cooperative Conference for Youth and organized trips to the American Institute of Cooperation for youth leaders in the state, many of whom went on to play important leadership roles in cooperatives. He developed effective, close working relationships with Congressional offices by creating educational tours for congressional aides.

A passionate educator, he co-authored the first co-op outline for vocational ag teachers and the nationally distributed “Careers in Cooperatives”. He also spearheaded the purchase of Congressman Andrew J. Volstead’s home and helped create a museum showcasing the history of the Capper-Volstead Act and the origins of farmer cooperatives.

Slettom’s belief in the cooperative system has been a lifelong passion. Through his leadership, innovation and strength of character, he has left a lasting mark that will benefit cooperatives and the people they serve far into the future.

Inducted: 2008

Respected for their vision, innovation, and outstanding leadership, Walden Swanson and Kate Sumberg have lived their lives as champions of cooperation, serving as co-op developers, managers, board members, consultants, entrepreneurs and volunteers. Their legacy is substantial.

Early careers with consumer food and distribution co-ops showed them the need for cooperatives to network to obtain the competitive advantages of virtual chains, while retaining the unique attributes of local ownership. They created CoCoFiSt, an innovative financial benchmarking system that has transformed cooperation among food co-ops, and advanced the work of the National Cooperative Grocers Association. This system is being successfully brought to other cooperative sectors today through CoopMetrics.

Their successful work in starting and expanding co-ops as employees and consultants of Cooperative Development Services helped validate the concept of the “cooperative development center”, inspiring the creation of other centers and laying the groundwork for a network of centers that is today known as CooperationWorks.

In addition, this dynamic team has brought integrity, dedication, and boundless enthusiasm to their work, always inspiring others, and earning them status as trusted mentors and heroes to so many within the cooperative community.

Inducted 2008

“A law,” wrote Henry Ward Beecher, “is valuable not because it is law, but because there is right in it.” Terry Lewis has devoted her career as an expert in cooperative law and her keen legal mind to advance all that is right in cooperative ownership. From her work as a practicing attorney, to her eight years as President of the National Association of Housing Cooperatives (NAHC), to her several roles with NCB — Director, Vice President for Cooperative Development, and President of NCB Community Works — she has been a steadfast champion of the cooperative movement. A passionate advocate for cooperative housing, Lewis has helped shape publicpolicy, promoting active housing development and ensuring the continuing viabilityof cooperatives as an affordable housing option for millions of Americans. Herlifelong commitment and sage advice have helped countless people by strengtheningthe cooperatives in which they live and work.Lewis has held numerous volunteer leadership positions in the cooperative communitywith NAHC, the National Cooperative Business Association, and the CooperativeDevelopment Foundation. She is a powerful speaker, a compelling leader, and atrusted resource who has devoted her vast expertise on cooperative development,governance, operations, and law to protect and advance this noble cause.

Inducted: 2003

Rod Nilsestuen is a true statesman whose deep commitment to cooperatives and the people who own them is legendary. He has advocated self-help cooperation as a way for ordinary people to address their needs, and has worked to build a sustainable infrastructure for co-op development, education and innovation across the country.

A visionary, Nilsestuen was the founding chair of the National Rural Cooperative Development Task Force, resulting in a major federal investment in cooperative development and the creation of hundreds of co-op development projects in our nation’s communities. He also chaired the National Cooperative Business Association, and held leadership posts on many national and regional cooperative, government and university bodies.

Nilsestuen served as President and CEO of the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives for 24 years, building it into one of the most respected cooperative trade associations in the nation. His efforts brought all Wisconsin co-op sectors together to produce a strong, unified voice, and created a two-state alliance with the Minnesota Association of Cooperatives. He also strengthened the Midwest co-op community by spearheading the unification of WFC and the Wisconsin Electric Cooperative Association, and by helping to create the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, Cooperative Development Services, and the Midwest Dairy Marketing Initiative.

 

Inducted:2001

John B. Gauci is the rare individual who has devoted his life to helping people improve their lives through cooperatives. For more than forty years he has been a proactive and positive leader, who has never been afraid to take a risk to achieve lasting change. His reach has been far and wide. He helped develop cooperatives and credit unions in India, inner-city neighborhoods in New York, the rural midwest, and poor areas in the rural south.

Gauci served as executive director of the Cooperative Development Foundation (CDF) for eight years, growing it into a national foundation with tremendous impact. He was instrumental in creating CDF’s rural development program and the United Co-op Appeal, both of which have blossomed into important co-op development funding initiatives.

Gauci’s biggest legacy is cooperatives and senior services. Under his leadership, CDF provided seed capital to build more than 1,000 units of senior co-op housing. He also laid the groundwork for addressing social services including health care for seniors through cooperatives.

Throughout his career, Gauci’s strong leadership and innovative vision has garnered positive results, and has inspired and persuaded others to advance cooperatives.