If you were a business student at Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) up until recently, odds are you took Management 375 with J. Fred McLimore. If you are over 40 you may have had him at Purdue.
Simply put: the man was a rare breed of academic that had years of experience in the corporate trenches.
- His book Strategies, Successes, Senior Executives Speak Out was the basis of a case-study approach in the class along with lots of handouts.
- A memorable movie he screened for the class What You Are Is Where You Were When that was really fascinating. The concept is that cultural influences while your personality is forming between ages 10-12 have a major impact on attitudes and behavior.
- Chicago Mayor Richard Daley’s Speech Honoring Professor McLimore in 2002
- He started Executives in the Classrooom at Purdue his alma mater.
- Last Syllabus for MGMT 495
One of his tenets was for business students to get real hands-on management experience in business operations. He eschewed the staff specialties (marketing and finance) as a career focus and encouraged students that wanted to run businesses to start in line management. He also didn’t pull any punches and had many stories about the realities of being a business manager, ethics and the human side of being a boss.
Then there was the renown group project. There was a buzz among the students about this class for a reason. These projects were fun hands-on projects that required the students to prepare a pithy business presentation to briefly introduce classmates to the scheduled business executives that Professor McLimore had lined up to guest lecture. Students also met for coffee with the special guest in the morning of their visit for some one-on-one time in the Chancellor’s office on top floor of University Hall. My project was: Bill and Dom’s Excellent Adventure to Hyatt.
Professor McLimore’s generosity went beyond the class. He regularly invited students to his home in West Rogers Park where he shared sage career advice, and sheparded access to his own personal network of contacts and access to successful alumni.
