Illinois State University lost a member of its family on September 15, 2012, when Peter Couch passed away.
Couch spent 25 years instructing in the College of Business Management and Quantitative Methods Department. He retired in 1995.
“He played an essential part in the core group of faculty around whom the initial AACSB accreditation was built as our program was gaining prominence,” said a longtime Illinois State faculty member.
Couch was also active in a variety of professional organizations and created and subsequently taught numerous management development programs and was involved in innovative teaching and learning programs. Couch was also a die-hard Redbird and Redbirds sports fan.
Contributions in Couch’s memory may be made on the East Lawn Funeral Home website.
I had Dr. Couch in a management class during what I believe was his very first year at Illinois State. That was probably the fall of 1970 as I graduated in the Spring of 1971. He was a young, enthusiastic, dedicated guy fresh from Minnesota (if I remember correctly) back then and I suspect he was during the entirety of his career. It is nice to see that he stayed at ISU throughout his career. I went on to Indiana State for my MBA the following year where I met another equally influential professor. I truly believe it was the joint influence Dr. Couch and Dr. Goebel that led me to enter academia as my chosen profession. In 1977 I began my doctorate at the University of Colorado – in Organizational Behavior, of course! Following completion I taught at WIU for ten years and am now in my 23rd year at Ball State. Dr. Couch’s easy but informed and professional style of teaching was very influential in how I have worked with students ever since. Illinois State lost a very special professor but I am thankful to have been his student.
Dr. Doug Naffziger
ISU, 1971 alum