Ross Robson

If interested, read my "School Story" first.

For whatever it is worth, long working hours and perseverance with limited capability can lead to meaningful achievements. Suffice it to say, my life has exceeded all of my own expectations.

About 1992, we attended a wedding in Washington DC that included a Paddle Boat Reception on the Patomac River. I had a conversation with a renouned Productivity Professor from George Washington University about his career. He reported that his career took off about age 50 and was now declineing at age 75. With hindsight, my ultimate career was beginning at about age 50 and I expect to continue my professional work into my 70's.

In 1989, I was appointed Associate Dean of the College of Business, Utah State University. In this capacity, I was Director of the Partners in Business program (a series of business seminars) that a few classmates have attended. I also assumed the position of Executive Director, the Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing. The Shingo Prize was one year old and was an Award and Recognition program for manufacturing companies in North America. A very unusual program for any university to administer. Much of the resulting recognition of the program was due to the focus on Toyota business processes and corporate executives from companies like Ford, Exxon, JCI, Toyota, Autoliv, Wilson Sporting, OC Tanner, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Delphi, etc., who vigorously supported the Prize program.

Due to my "campus" being North America, I became Platium and a "Million Miler" on Delta. I cannot begin to describe all the rich experiences and the many profoundly dedicated employees that I have met that were striving to make their companies truely excellenct and globally competitive in the US, Canada and Mexico. I estimate that I addressed well over 75,000 people on Lean business systems and the Shingo Prize.

In 2000, Business Week dubbed the program "the Nobel prize of manufacturing."

A Public Sector category was created for primarily the Department of Defense "repair and overhaul" Depots like Hill Air Force Base. In this capacity, I reconnected with Michael Amidan. Allthough I never served in the military, I have flown in a C-5 and have seen the manufacture or re-manufacture of the F-19, F-18, F-117, KC-135 and others. Great opportunities and experiences.

At one time in the program, there was a deficit of over $100,000. Financial stabilty was a challenge, but at retirement the program had over $2,000,000 in cash and reserves.

Personal recognition of the program after retirement included the Lifetime Achievement award from the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (previous recipient was Fujio Cho, Chairman of the Board--Toyota Motor) and the Eli Whitney International Award for Productivity from the Society for Manufacturing Engineering.

Over the past 15 years, I was better known in Detroit and Mexico than I was in Logan, Utah. What can you say about a "Plain" Ross from Plain City.

The Shingo Prize goal of achieving excellence in business was totally compatable with the values taught and partially learned from my family's dairy and row crop farm, from my religious background (the challenge of striving to be better tomorrow than yesterday with an eye toward perfection), from my education and friends throughout my life, including lessons learned at Weber High School.

Today, I have my own company, DnR Lean LLC--DaNece (wife) 'n Ross. What an orginal name. Among other things, I arrange Plant Tours and Training by Autoliv Lean Consulting, a unit of Autoliv in Ogden. Utah operations of Autoliv is recognized as being the best if not one of the best "total Lean transformations (based upon Toyota business system) in North America. It is energizing to associate with great people from a great company. An Autoliv collegue and I are writing a book about Leadership as found at Autoliv (hopefully).

While I look healthy, I have "Stents" in two Arteries of my heart, I am a two-time Cancer survivor (Prostate and Non-Hodgkin's), have had 2 Cornea transplants, back surgery, among a few other minor ailments. Suffice it to say that we are all better off than most in the world.

For the Huntsville Picnic Dinner, DaNece and Ross will walk 2 blocks from our 2nd home in Huntsville (DaNece's family home). My guess that this will be the shortest distance traveled to the Picnic.

We look forward to re-connecting with a few of our 1960 class that we can remember.

My best greeting is BestWishes, LiveStrong and GoLean.


If you have read this far, let me encourage all to more fully write about your life on Roger Valentine's fantastic Class Creator Software.

I failed to work to my ability throughout my secondary education. In my Senior year at Weber High, I began to focus a little on my educational future. My first 1 1/2 years in college left a great deal to be desired. At USU I roomed with Brent Checketts and Ed Adair (Weber 1959).

After transferring to Weber State, I somehow began to get serious about life. Marriage helped! During my Senior year, I served as 1st VP of the Studentbody and was selected as Male Student of the Year. My major was Political Science.

I returned to Utah State University to complete a Master's degree in Political Science.

I taught at a small private college in Denison, IA for two years. Today the facility is a Job Corps run by a Utah Company.

In 1968 I began a PhD at the University of Maryland in Political Science, with an emphasis in Urban Affairs and Public Administration. First Summer in the Washington, DC area was without air conditioning and only 1/2 block from Route 1 with frequent sirens 24/7.

Prior to finishing my Dissertation, I accepted a teaching position at the University of Georgia. The next Summer we returned to Maryland and completed my PhD in 1973. I was subsequently recruited to join the faculty at the University of Tennessee. Knoxville TN was a great place to live.

In 1979, we returned to Utah to be a faculty member at Utah State University. I had at least 3 distinct careers at Utah State, the last was Associate Dean for Business Relations, College of Business for nearly 19 years. I retired in September 2008.

If you have read this far, I guarantee that I exceeded all teacher and fellow student expectations based upon my classroom performance at Weber High School.

My life and career have been great. One might suggest that I was a late bloomer.