Acknowledgements

Until I wrote this book, I never fully understood the importance of the Acknowledgements section. There are so many to thank, deeply and profoundly. First is the Greenleaf family. Bob and Esther’s children— Newcomb, Lisa, and Madeline—shared hours of conversations, allowed full access to personal items, and helped me understand the spirit of both of their remarkable parents. Thanks also to the Greenleaf Center board which got the ball rolling on this biography some years ago. Besides contributing the Afterword, Greenleaf Center President and CEO Larry Spears has generously shared his personal deep knowledge of Robert Greenleaf, allowed access to interviews he conducted with those who knew Bob, put me in touch with key contacts, and offered helpful suggestions on the manuscript.

This book would not exist but for the nurturing of a remarkable servant-leader, Dr. Ann McGee-Cooper, who first introduced me to Robert Greenleaf. Since then, she has inspired, encouraged, contributed, read drafts, and put up with my craziness. Thank you forever, Ann.

The biography would have taken years longer without the diligent work of Anne Fraker, my friend and colleague at the Greenleaf Center who, for four years, deciphered Bob Greenleaf’s handwritten scrawl on hundreds of documents and showed me how a professional researcher and scholar should go about things.

We are all indebted to Dr. Joseph J. Distefano for conducting a series of wide-ranging, biographical interviews with Robert Greenleaf in December, 1985. The transcripts of those sessions, along with Dr. Distefano’s essay, Tracing the Vision and Impact of Robert K. Greenleaf and his personal papers were valuable source documents. Diane Cory (formerly Diane Bullard) and Fred Myers also contributed a wealth of biographicalXX information to the Greenleaf legacy by conducting multiple “open discussions” with Bob during the last years of his life. Diane and Fred were both AT&T employees at the time and were able to get Bob to kick back, relax, and reveal details of his work which would otherwise have been lost to history.

I was fortunate to have access to scores of people who knew and worked with Robert Greenleaf and who graciously submitted to interviews for this book. There are too many to list here, but their enthusiastic conversations made all the difference in the research and writing.

TDIndustries in Dallas is the country’s longest-running experiment in servant-leadership, and certainly one of the most successful. Special thanks to TDI’s Jack Lowe, Jr., Ben Houston, and Bob Ferguson—heroes all, in my humble opinion—but I have yet to meet any TDI Partner who did not teach me something about the real-world practicality of servant-leadership.

Sandra Fisk and her Leadership Greater Galesburg (Illinois) classes taught me more than I could possibly share with them during sessions over the course of four years. Sincere appreciation to Ginny Duncan of Fond du Lac Wisconsin and members of her Spirituality and Leadership group who allowed me to join them for eighteen months while staff and faculty from Marian and Ripon Colleges grappled with the deepest issues of leadership and spirituality. Debbie Bonnet of the Lumina Foundation and Morton Marcus of the IU Business Research Center also offered strong encouragement along the way.

I offer deep appreciation to my doctoral committee: John Adams, Gary Boelhower, Lawrence J. Lad, Jan Mooney-Smith, Michael Q. Patton, and Deborah Vogele-Welch. Intrepid peers in my Union Institute and University doctoral adventure—we modestly call ourselves “The A-Team”— offered belief in this project when none was warranted, cheers for successes and condolences for failures. Thank you, Tina, Greg, Gator Bob, Thomas, Paige, Haley, and Ashford, for the kind of friendship which trumps mere Ph.D. degrees. Old friend Mike Sullivan offered brilliant insights which could only come from an Addy Award-winning producer, and Dr. Hamilton Beazley helped me keep the vision while he sharpened my thinking and writing. Profound thanks to Karin who paid a personal price to support my Greenleaf biography obsession. Then, there is my family, especially Linda and Jack, my mother/musician/author Rene,XXI cousin Janet Bleck, Aunt Ruth and Uncle J.T. Seamands, and cousins from the whole Seamands clan, writers all.

Supporters of this book include a list of impressive people and organizations who have enriched my life and work. The Lilly Endowment, Inc., and especially Susan Wisely, supported primary research and travel, ably administered by Indiana State University’s irrepressible servant-leader Jan Arnett. Southwest Airlines contributed tickets to visit far-flung archives. The book could not have been completed down the final stretch without the support of The Circle of Servants, a wonderful group of people and organizations who believe in the Greenleaf legacy. The Circle of Servants includes:

Finally, sincere appreciation to all archivists and special collection librarians who, I am convinced, are destined to save the heritage of American democracy as we know it.