Herman R. Bobbitt Jr.

Our Dad, Randy Bobbitt (Herman R Bobbitt, Jr.), passed away on October 22, 2017 in Chandler Arizona. Randy was born in McClure, Virginia in January 1938 and moved to Grandview Heights, Ohio. He excelled in school graduating in 1956 from Grandview Heights High School then attending Georgia Tech majoring in chemistry. Randy changed majors and transferred to The Ohio State University where he received a BSBA, and a Master’s Degree, publishing his Masters’ Thesis and receiving a full scholarship to pursue his Doctorate in Economics at The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. After obtaining his PhD, he briefly worked in the insurance industry then taught finance at Ohio University before signing on at his alma mater, The Ohio State University, to teach insurance. He quickly decided he had an interest in the emerging field of Organizational Behavior and Theory spending the remainder of his career as one of the leading thinkers and researchers in this field. During his tenure at The Ohio State University, he was the Chairman of the Labor and Management Department and oversaw the MBA program for several years before his retirement. Randy was a scholar in the classic sense dedicated to honing his understanding of his field and passing on his wisdom to his students. He never forgot a student and those he mentored recognized his dedication to their educational pursuits through many awards. Randy remained a true scholar even after retirement and you could always find business journals and ground-breaking books on management along with current non-fiction and fiction works on the table next to his chair. He was always eager for an intellectual conversation. Equal to his love of the pursuit of knowledge was his love of family. Randy was blessed with five children and numerous foster children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren and always put family first. Randy was part of the Matz family on his mother Gay’s side and enjoyed close relationships with his many aunts, uncles and cousins and always looked forward to the bi-annual family reunions. The last reunion he attended in August of this year. Randy also spent many hours at the horse races with his father, Herman, and was an accomplished handicapper. Randy had the great pleasure of traveling all over the world. He especially enjoyed teaching in Nantes and Lille France and spending many wonderful days in his favorite city of Paris. He took up gourmet French cooking after retirement and dazzled many friends and family with his fabulous dinner parties. Our Dad will be greatly missed having left us much too early. He was looking forward to spending his 80th birthday in New Orleans, a city he had enjoyed with numerous trips with family. In his honor, we will be hosting a jazz procession down Bourbon Street culminating in a reception at Arnaud’s on January 5, 2018. Friends and family are encouraged to attend and may RSVP on the Randy Bobbitt Memorial Page on Facebook where more details will be provided. Please consider a donation to the Fisher College of Business Undergraduate Scholarship Fund by following this link

www.giveto.osu.edu/makeagift/?fund=302660

and noting the donation is in honor of Professor Emeritus Randy Bobbitt. Live to Learn…