About our Tampa Bay ISPI Chapter
Richard Gerson passed away on Monday, June 9th, 2008. The following are news articles:
Richard Gerson's motivational advice will live on in his books
Consultant, author, coach and speaker
From Robbie Gerson
At Richard's last class at USF, he gave some opening remarks for his students. He described his background, education, his company and offerings. He said "You can call me a speaker, consultant, or a motivator or anything you want, but I am really a teacher. I was trained to be a teacher, and I will always be a teacher." He died shortly thereafter that. His legacy is his work in print and through the thousands of people he helped and trained over the years. I, too, was sitting in this class to learn from him as I had done many times in the past.
Richard's Contribution to our Chapter
Richard Gerson was one of the founding members of the Tampa Bay Chapter for ISPI. He was our Past-President who dedicated his time to help our members and guests grow professionally. In our chapter, he brought top names from our field to present locally, encouraged us to obtain our CPT designation, and supported us as we presented nationally.
On our website, you will read the slogan, "Creating High Performance Organizations." Richard coined this phrase for us during an annual Board strategy meeting. Richard was dedicated in actualizing this in working with organizations.
In his last email to the Board, he encouraged the Board to present at the April ISPI Conference and would volunteer his time to help others prepare applications for concurrent sessions.
The Tampa Bay Chapter feels the heavy loss and will greatly miss his guidance and expertise. Richard used to say, “Finish what you started.” The Chapter takes this to heart, and we honor our friend and colleague.
Contributions
The family has asked for contributions to ALS Association. Also, if you would like to contribute to the Richard F. Gerson Memorial Scholarship, please send checks made payable to:
USF Foundation
c/o Jon Jones
Associate Director of Development
USF College of Business
4202 E. Fowler Ave, BSN 3403
Tampa, FL 33620-5500
Check memo line: Richard Gerson Memorial Scholarship.
