Inducted: 2012
Robert D. Partridge Endowed Professor in Cooperative Leadership and Executive Director of The Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership (GICL), University of Missouri-Columbia.
His applied research on the role of cooperatives in the changing global marketplace, combined with his writing, consulting and cooperative business experience, has enabled him to develop educational materials, classroom curricula and a portfolio of business advisory services that have provided a generation of cooperative leaders with the tools to be more effective managers of cooperative business enterprises. An integral part of the University of Missouri's Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership since 1989, under his leadership GICL has been recognized as an ambitious, effective cooperative leadership development program. In addition to his vast credentials in the domestic cooperative arena, he has done extensive international cooperative development work in India, Namibia and Brazil and he continues to mentor and work with his former graduate students and visiting scholars who are now engaged in cooperative development in countries around the world.