Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and Management founding dean, Don Sime, passed away December 9, 2010 surrounded by his wife, Pat, and their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren at their home in Mars Hill, North Carolina. Pepperdine President Andrew K. Benton praised Sime as an innovative leader whose "dedication, commitment and passion helped grow our little college into a major university." Added Benton, "Among the many innovations he pioneered, Dean Sime was a primary mover behind creating a key executive program at Pepperdine, and he helped recruit one of the very first classes in the downtown business section of Los Angeles."
That initial program was a precursor to what is today Pepperdine's Presidential/Key Executive MBA program which has been emulated by several of the nation's leading business schools. "Don's vision for the school in 1969, and his tireless efforts in the early years of what was then the Graduate School of Business and Management built a unique and lasting foundation on which we continue to build today," said Graziadio School Dean Linda Livingstone.
Livingstone added, "The Graziadio School of Business and Management will be forever indebted to Dean Sime's vision, dedication and service."
Longtime Pepperdine Professor Wayne Strom remembered Sime as a friend and colleague writing: "Don Sime was the perfect person to be the founding Dean of the Pepperdine School of Business and Management. His expansive vision and his open honesty and candor inspired all of us to do our best. With his leadership, we all pulled together and built the school to an enrollment of about 2,000 students in the first five years of our existence. Don had completed his Ph.D. at University of Chicago where he studied with Carl Rogers. He embodied an approach to leadership that helped to call forth the best in each of us. His style was to build consensus. He imbued us all with the spirit of service and a commitment to educate the whole person."
Strom concluded: "Sometimes today, forty years later, when I step into a classroom, I catch myself reflecting on his style of working with students. He really did call forth the best in each of we who were professors, as well as in each of his students. All of us, even the newest faculty or staff member, all of us stand on Don Sime's shoulders. We all stand a bit taller because of the man he was and his vision for our school."
Contacts:
Pepperdine University
Jerry Derloshon
310-506-6485