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75 Years of Achievement 3 AN INTRODUCTION BY DEAN JOHN A. ELLIOTT UConn School of Business Celebrates 75th Anniversary, Alumni Consistently Amazed at How Their Program Has Grown is year we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of the creation of the University of Connecticut School of Business. Our history is captured in the larger arc of the history of our time and in the lives of our faculty, students and alumni. Our story begins in 1941, as the storms of World War II threatened. Gordon Tasker's life is a classic UConn story. Gordon's career was interrupted by the war. He survived the Pacific and returned to finish his degree in 1947, along with a flood of fellow veterans. e GI Bill helped a generation of veterans become college grad- uates, and UConn was an intellectual home for many veterans in the 1940s, 1950s, and it continues to be today. Gordon joined a small public accounting firm but went on to become a partner in the firm that is now PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). UConn grads played major roles in the growth of the accounting profes- sion in Hartford, Stamford, New York City and Boston. As a PwC partner, Gordon routinely crossed the Atlantic to serve a major client, Royal Dutch Shell. For many years he served in leadership roles at UConn, in the Foundation and ultimately as Chairman of the Board of Trustees in a leadership role that spread across the terms of three UConn presidents. Often he returned from London and immediately traveled to Hartford to meet with colleagues from Dartmouth who were advising UConn on the creation of our Health Center. en, as now, higher education was characterized by "coopetition," or cooperative competition, more than pure competition. Colleges work together to support contin- uous improvement and to create the strongest higher education experiences that we can. Our students and our communities de- serve no less. Laurence J. Ackerman was the founding dean and served with distinction from 1941 to 1963. He oversaw many changes, includ- ing the creation of an MBA program to serve returning veterans. Alumni remember him as warm and engaged. He knew many stu- dents well and counseled them effectively. is personal touch exemplified many in UConn's School of Business, something I have noted over my four years as School of Business dean. Dick Kochanek is an example of a faculty member whom many alumni know and admire. Our goal for the School of Business is to transform the lives of individuals and organi- zations, and Dick has exemplified that goal for some 43 years. John A. Elliott Dean