Schwendiman, Gary

Biography

Gary Schwendiman first joined the faculty at UNL in 1973 after teaching for three years at Marshall University in West Virginia and working with the General Motors Institute in Michigan. With a master's degree from Washington State in 1968 and a doctorate from Brigham Young in 1971, he served as assistant dean at the University of Nebraska until 1976 when he became interim dean for two years.

In 1979 Schwendiman was made dean of the College of Business. He persevered through an enrollment boom and low budget in 1984 during which the college was the second largest at UNL and turned away hundreds of students because the existing faculty was not able to handle the load. The college, a charter member of the AASCB (American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business) in 1916 earned a needed ten - year accreditation in 1984. Schwendiman was appointed to the National Agribusiness Education Commission in 1989. AEDP, which started in 1985, is a program involving the USDA and 25 food and agriculture companies. The program was started to lure the nation's best students into educational careers in agriculture. UNL's business college was one of the first of these academic programs. Schwendiman also started the National Center for Research in Economic Education. He did research on organizational and leadership effectiveness. In 1991, he was appointed to the FDIC Advisory unity. This allowed him to be placed on a committee that reports to Congress twice a year. Schwendiman was also named chairman for the investment committee of Beta Gamma Sigma, an honorary society for business schools recognized by the AACSB, in 1992. The dean provided leadership in a time of crisis, undertook pertinent research, established new programs, and took an active interest in students as people. Lincoln Journal 5-19-1984

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