IN MEMORY OF GARY BISHOP (1946-2015)
Week 44 of 52. Welcome to Drucker Mondays, a 52-week journey through the new book, A Year with Peter Drucker: 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness, by Joseph A. Maciariello. Each Monday, we feature a Drucker fan and his or her favorite snippet from the week's topic. (Subscribe on this page.) Gary Bishop is our guest writer today.
Week 44: Our Society in the U.S. Has Lost Its Sweetness
THE BIG IDEA FROM THE BOOK: The sweetness in our society, with which Drucker was so moved by on his arrival in the U.S. in 1937, is gone. Drucker said it is not an attribute which can be restored by government or business—it must be tackled by the human care resident in the compassion deployed by well-run nonprofit organizations.
GARY BISHOP'S FAVORITE DRUCKER INSIGHTS from Week 44, pages 343-349:
• In 1937, “We were here in the midst of a totally depressed economy. But the society was strong, and it was a country with almost no envy or very little, and was basically decent, with a great deal of sweetness in it.” (Drucker)
• “Some of our major cities have large segments that resemble war zones.” (Maciariello)
• “The individual needs the return of spiritual values, for he can survive in the present human situation only by reaffirming that man is not just biological and physiological being but also spiritual being, this is creature, and existing for the purposes of his Creator and subject to Him.” (Drucker)
GARY BISHOP'S COLOR COMMENTARY:
Who isn’t feeling, as Drucker noted, the loss of sweetness in our society? The pressing agenda to have government solve our sour society is misguided, according to Drucker.
Only the social sector can restore the dignity of the individual and community values that are needed to reenergize the productivity of workers and the common bond of a healthy society. Only when sweetness returns will we have the capacity to care for and encourage one another for the noble purposes intended by our Creator.
THIS WEEK'S QUOTES & COMMENTARY BY GARY BISHOP:
From the Editor, John Pearson:
With great sadness, we pay tribute to a close friend and extraordinary marketplace and ministry leader, Gary Bishop, who died last Monday morning, Oct. 26. He wrote this guest writer column the day before he entered heaven—and how fitting—that Week 44 is the first chapter in the section, “Character and Legacy.”
Today, I’m privileged to share in the memorial service with his family and friends in Fort Worth, Texas.
Gary’s career spanned service in the U.S. military, as a Dallas police officer, a private and commercial flight instructor, a Technical Occupational Dean at Dallas County Community College District, a Division Manager at Southwestern Bell/AT&T, the Executive Vice President of Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics, and the Director of Pittsburgh International Airport.
These experiences, coupled with the knowledge and life experience of being a devoted husband to Donna, father and grandfather, prepared Gary for a life of service as President and CEO of Mission Aviation Fellowship, President of World Bible Translation Center, and President and CEO of Far Corners Missions. (View this video of Gary’s passion for the far corners of the earth, “Why We Go.”)
Gary, a board member at Christian Community Credit Union since 2001, will be greatly missed by his fellow board members and the staff. He was 68. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that memorial gifts be sent to Far Corners Missions.
TO-DO TODAY:
Gary Bishop’s recommendation: “Volunteer in support of a well-run ministry or community-based charitable organization.”
Read Bob Buford's Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition), with a foreword by Jim Collins (published this month with more than 750,000 previously sold).
NEXT MONDAY:
On Nov. 9, 2015, watch for Steve Brown's color commentary on Week 45’s topic, “The Power of Purpose: Rick Warren on Peter Drucker,” the second chapter in the book’s final section, “Character and Legacy.”
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