Five outstanding members of the Smith faculty have been inducted into the Faculty Hall of Fame, established in 2009 to recognize Smith School of Business professors who made significant contributions to the school during their tenure. The latest recipients were chosen by a committee comprised of Dean Saunders, senior university leaders, alumni, current faculty and students.
The inductees were honoured at a ceremony at Goodes Hall on October 11, 2016, and were also recognized at the Homecoming Brunch the following weekend.
R.G.R. (Gordon) Cassidy (served 1972-1997; deceased 2010) was an innovator and visionary who led the establishment of Queen’s Executive MBA program in Ottawa in 1992. In 1994, he steered the launch of Queen’s National Executive MBA program, the first of its kind to be delivered across Canada via videoconferencing. This delivery model allowed the school to expand beyond Kingston to offer a series of high-quality MBA programs across Canada and subsequently throughout the Americas. Gordon’s strong teaching skills earned him the university-wide Frank Knox Teaching Award in 1997.
R.H. (Bob) Crandall (served 1961-1990) graduated from Queen’s in 1951, eventually becoming a CA. In 1959, as Queen’s Bursar, he was instrumental in revamping Queen’s financial planning and control systems. After completing his PhD at UC Berkeley, he returned to Queen’s. An inspired and inspiring teacher and researcher in accounting and organizational behaviour, Bob was the epitome of a great teacher and mentor. He actively liaised between the accounting profession and the school, becoming a Fellow of the ICA in 1976.
R.L. (Rick) Jackson (served 1974-2014) left his mark on the school as a professor of negotiation and industrial relations, mentor to many, and Chair of the Commerce program. Recognized by Queen’s for his teaching excellence and by the Commerce Society multiple times for his contributions to student life, Rick infused his classes with real-world lessons from current events, history and his own experiences as a mediator and arbitrator. He championed initiatives such as I.C.B.C. and QBET, true to his belief that much of the educational value of attending university is to be found in extracurricular activities.
C.A. (Carl) Lawrence (served 1963-1991; deceased 1999) arrived from the Wharton School to teach marketing, becoming Chair of the Commerce program during its explosive growth in the late 1960s and 1970s. A larger-than-life personality, he was known and loved by many people in Kingston, particularly by the generations of Commerce students who crossed his path. As Acting Dean from 1977 to 1978, he was responsible for formalizing many of the reporting, promotion and tenure processes in the school, which earned him considerable respect from faculty.
J.E. (Ev) Smyth (served 1946-1961; deceased 1983), was a Chartered Accountant who joined the school immediately after World War II to help serve an exploding population of ex-servicemen enrolling in Commerce and in the Canadian Bankers’ Association correspondence-course program. He is fondly remembered by former students of his accounting and commercial law courses as a well-prepared and excellent teacher with a finely-tuned sense of humour. He became a noted figure in both fields, especially as co-author, with D.A. Soberman of Queen’s Law School, and others, of the textbook The Law and Business Administration in Canada, currently in its 14th edition.
