EAST LANSING, Mich. – About two years ago, a 1963 Michigan State University business alumnus, Richard J. Metzler, found a way to show his appreciation for the undergraduate scholarship he had received as a student by making a significant financial contribution to begin an endowment to honor his advising professor, John H. Hoagland.
He then inspired several companies, associations and former students and colleagues of Hoagland to add to the fund, resulting in MSU’s recent announcement of the new $2 million Hoagland-Metzler Endowed Chair in Purchasing Supply Management at the Eli Broad College of Business.
The new endowment is designed to attract an outstanding faculty member to continue the Broad School’s internationally recognized education and research leadership in important areas of purchasing and supply management.
”This endowed chair is a great example of how a spectacular faculty member like John Hoagland can have a profound effect on his field of research, his students and his profession,” said Robert Duncan, the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Dean of the Broad School. ”A gift such as this is both a living tribute to John’s achievements and a great honor to the school where he worked for nearly half a century.”
The school hopes to appoint the first Hoagland-Metzler Endowed Chair in Purchasing Supply Management by January 2005, said Robert Nason, chairperson of the Broad School’s Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management.
Nason announced the new endowment at the 15th annual North American Research and Teaching Symposium on Purchasing and Supply Chain Management held in Tempe, Ariz., in late March. Hoagland was present for the announcement, but Metzler was unable to attend.
Hoagland, professor emeritus of the Broad School, taught from 1952 until his teaching retirement in 1990. He continues extensive research on business trends, especially those provided by data from purchasing business surveys that he helped improve. These indexes are now copied worldwide and are regarded as providing one of the world’s leading economic indicators.
Hoagland helped improve business conditions in the United States through his work on the causes of business recessions. He has been internationally recognized for his contributions to education and research in supply management for undergraduate, graduate and executive students.
Metzler began his career in supply management and ultimately founded and went public with a highly successful utilities consulting business. Currently he is managing director of Trove Partners, LLC.