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2006

Gary N. McLean, more than any person, has internationalized the HRD profession. As graduate program coordinator at the University of Minnesota he recruited students from around the world with over half of the students coming from other nations. He has established formal cooperative working relationships with five universities outside the USA and created successful HRD certificate and master's programs in Saudi Arabia. In addition, much of McLean's scholarly work has been focused on international human resource development. He has made important contributions related to culturally sensitive training of human resources in other nations and in the conduct of organization development in various cultures.

2004

Richard A. Swanson is the founding editor of the Human Resource Development Quarterly and one of the three founding architects of the Academy of Human Resource Development. His mantra of "leading the HRD profession through research" was adopted by the Academy and guided his personal professional life and his advisement of doctoral students at the University of Minnesota. Swanson was also the founding editor of Advances in Developing Human Resources and negotiated the original contracts for Human Resource Development International and Human Resource Development Review. As a prolific scholar, his research in the areas of HRD theory, performance improvement, and financial assessment have made fundamental contributions to the advancement of the HRD discipline.

2002

John Clemans Flanagan

Development of the Critical Incident Technique and the creation of the Aviation Psychology Program and the American Institutes for Research

2001

Leonard Nadler

foundations of HRD

Leonard Nadler, professor emeritus George Washington University, is credited by many with coining the term, “Human Resource Development.” Through the 1970s and 1980s, Nadler tirelessly advocated the HRD profession. His greatest legacies are a cadre of doctoral graduates from GWU and his sponsorship of several HRD book series through multiple publishers. He authored and coauthored numerous books, including The Handbook of Human Resource Development 2nd Edition.

2000

Gary S. Becker

human capital theory

Gary S. Becker, Professor of Economics and Sociology at the University of Chicago, won the Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Science in 1992. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1955. Becker is recognized for his expertise in human capital, economics of the family, and economic analysis of crime, discrimination, and population. He is the author of numerous books, including the 1964 seminal work Human Capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis with special reference to education- 3rd edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

1999

Robert M. Gagne

conditions of learning

Robert M. Gagne, American psychologist and educator, served as Professor at Princeton, UC Berkeley, and Florida State University. He is co-developer of the famous "instructional systems design" adopted by the US military and many major corporations as the core training process based on the assumption that instruction can be analyzed and broken down into component parts which can then be taught sequentially. He is author and co-author of numerous books including The Conditions of Learning and Principles of Instructional Design and many research journal articles.

1998

career development theory

Donald E. Super was professor emeritus of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He received his Doctor of Science degree from Oxford University. His books include such titles as Appraising Vocational Fitness, The Psychology of Careers, Computer Assisted Counseling, Measuring Vocational Maturity, and Career development in Britain. He also authored widely used psychological tests for vocational counseling and personnel selection.

1997

B. F. Skinner

teaching machines

Burrhus F. Skinner studied at Harvard and taught there from1931-36 and from 1947-74 with the time between at the University of Minnesota. A leading behaviorist, he was a proponent of operant conditioning and programmed instruction. His main scientific works include The Behavior of Organisms (1938), and Verbal Behavior (1957). His social and political views reached a wider public through Walden Two and Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971).

1996

Kurt Lewin

change theory

Kurt Lewin was born in the Prussian province of Posen in 1890, and in 1916 his degree from the University of Berlin was conferred. Lewin immigrated to the United States in 1933, where he became a citizen in 1940. He pioneered the use of social change theory, using experimentation to test hypotheses. He placed significance on group dynamics and action research. Lewin authored over 80 articles and eight books on a wide range of issues.

1995

Lillian M. Gilbreth

human aspects of management

Lillian M. Gilbreth, born in 1878, achieved many firsts in her lifetime. She received her doctorate in psychology at Brown University in 1915. Together with her husband Frank, she pioneered industrial management techniques still in use today. While her husband was concerned with the technical aspects of worker efficiency, Gilbreth was concerned with the human aspects of management and performance. She was a prolific author, the recipient of many honorary degrees. In 1935, she joined the Purdue University faculty.

1994

Malcolm S. Knowles

Commonly known as “the father of adult learning” and had a fundamental impact on both the scholarship and practice of human resource development

Malcolm S. Knowles (b. 1913 - d.1997) is commonly known as “the father of adult learning” and had a significant impact on both scholarship and practice of human resource development on a global basis. His espoused goal in life was to advance the cause of the individual and of American democracy in the university and in adult education, in business and industry, and in society generally. His writings, the development andragogy, and his establishment of adult-oriented educational programs throughout the world have made an enduring contribution to the human resource development profession. Knowles sought out and won a full-tuition scholarship to Harvard University where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1934. While at Harvard, Knowles spent four active years involved in service and social work, youth groups, counseling with immigrant Italian families, and was even the water boy for the football team. His association with Harvard’s football coach led him to a position as director of related training, the study portion of a work-study program, at a new National Youth Administration, which was directed by the coach. This position began Knowles’ involvement in adult education.

1993

Channing R. Dooley

For his "watershed" nationwide contributions to the fundamental theory and practice of human resource development through the Training-within-Industry Project from 1940-1945 and other lifetime contributions to the profession.

Channing R. Dooley (b. 1878, d. 1956) made profound contributions to the practice and professionalization of training and the fundamental expansion of the training field into the contemporary human resource development profession. Dooley's pioneering contributions, through the massive Training-within-Industry (TWI) Project for the USA during WWII established the core foci of contemporary human resource development practice. Dooley (1945) writes in a retrospective of the 1940-1945 effort that: "TWI is known for the results of its programs—Job Instruction, Job Methods, Job Relations, and Program Development—which have, we believe, permanently become part of American industrial operations as accepted tools of management." (p. xi) Nearly two million certifications of learning and expertise were awarded to supervisors, managers, and senior managers across 16,000 production plants. Given the cascade design of this nation-wide effort, one might speculate that at least several millions more actually benefited from the nationwide effort. Dooley, a graduate of Purdue University, received an honorary doctorate from Purdue in 1944. His publications were largely focused on the TWI effort.