Dr. Bernard Bass, Ph.D.
On October 11, 2007, during the final stages of the production of the 4th edition of
the
Handbook of Leadership, Bernard M. Bass passed away at his vacation home in Binghamton,
NY. Bernie, to his colleagues and friends, had been living in St. Petersburg, FL, was 82 years
old, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the School of Management at Binghamton University
(State University of New York), and a member of the Academy of Senior Professionals at Eckerd
College in Florida. He was also the Founding Director of the Center for Leadership Studies at
Binghamton and Founding Editor of The
Leadership Quarterly journal.
Bernie obtained his PhD in
Industrial Psychology in 1949 from Ohio State University. He subsequently held positions at
Louisiana State University, University of California at Berkley, University of Pittsburg,
University of Rochester, and SUNY-Binghamton. In seven decades, since 1946, he published over
400 journal articles, book chapters and technical reports; and 21 authored books and 10 edited
books. He was a consultant and involved in executive development for many of the Fortune 500 firms
and delivered lectures and workshops in over 40 countries. He also lectured and conducted workshops
pro bono in a wide variety of not-for-profit organizations, including religious organizations,
hospitals, government agencies, and universities. His work has been cited thousands of times
and he has received millions of dollars in research grants. Translations of his work have
appeared in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Japanese. In addition to
authoring the
Handbook of Leadership, Bernie focused for the past 25 years on research
and applications to management development of transformational leadership.
Bernie has been
honored with many awards for lifetime achievement by several professional organizations,
including the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award (1994) from the Society for
Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Eminent Leadership Scholar Award (2006)
from the Leadership Network of the Academy of Management. A Festschrift in his honor was
held in 2001. Bernies citation in
TIP for the SIOP Distinguished Scientific Contributions
Award mentioned over a dozen major contributions to I/O psychology, including his work on
the leaderless group discussion, survey feedback, empowerment, film and computer network
feedback, contingent reinforcement, participative management education, and leadership as
well as his seminal textbooks in the 1960's and 1970's that "developed new theoretical
models for several I/O areas, 'invented' organizational psychology, and joined the 'I' and
'O' areas." He is survived by his wife, Ruth, who was instrumental in the completion of the
Handbook of Leadership; his son Robert and his wife Maryanne with their three daughters,
Rebecca, Megan and Lauren; his son Jonathan and his wife Patricia with their three sons
Joshua, Jeremy, and Jonathan Jr. and his wife Cristie and their two children; his daughter
Laurie and her husband Steve; and his daughter Audie.
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