March 2006
Dr. Fredric M. Jablin, 1952-2004
Approximately 50 friends, family members, colleagues and alumni
gathered to honor an outstanding scholar and beloved friend, father
and teacher at the dedication ceremony of the Fredric Jablin Library
in the Jepson Faculty Lounge on February 26. Dean
Kenneth Ruscio opened the ceremony by recalling the many
contributions Jablin made on both an academic and personal level
before his tragic death in October 2004.
Jablin’s former colleagues
Joanne Ciulla and
Gill Hickman announced the dedication of two publications to
Jablin. Ciulla and co-editors
Terry Price of the Jepson School and Susan E. Murphy of
Claremont McKenna College dedicated “The
Quest for Moral Leaders: Essays on Leadership Ethics,” published
in 2005, to Jablin. Hickman and coauthor Richard Couto of Antioch
University dedicated their book chapter “Causality, Change and
Leadership,” forthcoming in 2006 in “A Quest for a General Theory of
Leadership: A Multidisciplinary Approach” edited by
George Goethals and Georgia Sorenson, to Jablin, whom they
credited with formulating many of the ideas discussed in the
chapter.
Jablin’s ideas also
inspired her, said Adrienne Capps (’98), who took numerous classes
with him as an undergraduate at the Jepson School. Suppressing a
laugh as she shot a glance at Ciulla and Hickman, Capps admitted
that she didn’t remember most of the leadership theories she learned
at Jepson. “What I do remember is how Dr. Jablin taught me to think
critically and analytically,” Capps said.
Capps created the
Jablin Research Fellowship to honor her former professor, known
in academic circles for his meticulous scholarly research. The
$2,000 fellowship will be awarded for each of the next five summers
to a Jepson student engaged in an unpaid research internship.
Michael Jablin, Jablin’s
only sibling and the guardian of his three children, thanked the
Jepson community and others for the outpouring of support he and the
children received following Jablin’s death, noting especially the
comfort he and the children took from reading the hundreds of
letters from Jablin’s former students. “This library will be a
constant reminder of all the affection and appreciation you all had
for Fred and will help keep his memory alive,” Michael Jablin said.
Indeed it will. Oversized
chairs and couches beckon to would-be readers in the beautifully
reappointed lounge. A large oak bookcase containing faculty
publications, leadership studies classics and the dissertations of
Jablin’s graduate students spans one entire wall. And on one shelf
of the bookcase rests a framed collage of three photographs of
Jablin in the classroom bearing the simple inscription “Dr. Fredric
M. Jablin, Scholar, Teacher, Friend, 1952-2004.” |