Dr. Thomas Bohen, a member of the University of St. Thomas business administration faculty, died Dec. 7 after a brief illness.
Bohen spent 15 years working in the retail industry before he made the decision to change careers and go into teaching. After earning his M.B.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1958, he joined the St. Thomas business administration faculty.
When asked at the time if he ever regretted his decision to enter the teaching profession, he replied, “I’m happier about it every day.”
Bohen became chair of the department in 1970, a post he held for 10 years. During that time, he was instrumental in launching St. Thomas’ M.B.A. program. Over the course of his term, business administration undergraduates grew to nearly half the total student population.
Three years before his retirement, he was named Professor of the Year. An Aquin article announcing his award highlighted his appreciation for the marriage of liberal arts and career-focused education: “Becoming an educated person is a lifelong process that only begins in college.”
Frank Coglitore, a member of the University of St. Thomas accounting faculty, died of cancer Oct. 21. Survivors include his wife, Elaine, and a grandson, Kyle, a student at St. Thomas.
Coglitore majored in accounting and minored in philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, went on to receive an M.B.A. at Scranton University and continued his studies at the University of Minnesota.
When he took the certified public accountant exam in Minnesota, he received the Harold C. Utley award for having the highest test score in the state. Coglitore taught accounting and auditing at St. Thomas for 27 years and received the university’s highest teaching honor, the Professor of the Year Award, in 2006.
“I truly love going into the classroom and teaching,” he said at the time, “and plan to keep doing so as long as I enjoy working with our students and feel I’m making a contribution.
“While some could consider the field of accounting to be fairly cut and dried, there are many things that are open to interpretation. Our students need to know what is the right thing to do. We instill in them a professional code of conduct.”
Dr. Susan Heckler, Distinguished Endowed Chair in Marketing, died Jan. 18 of complications due to kidney failure.
Heckler began her career as a chemist, earning her undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota. She went on to earn an M.B.A. and Ph.D. in business administration, with an emphasis in marketing, from the University of Minnesota.
Heckler first joined the University of St. Thomas in 1984 as assistant professor of marketing. She went on to serve as visiting assistant professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan, professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Arizona in Tucson and visiting professor of marketing at Georgetown University. She rejoined St. Thomas in 2003.
A founding member of the core faculty of the Full-time UST MBA program, Heckler taught the core marketing course and Applied Business Research, a course that she had designed earlier in her career and modified for the program.
Heckler won numerous awards, among them Outstanding MBA Faculty from the University of Arizona in 1995-96 and in 1998-99, and a Special Award for Excellence in Service to the Faculty from the University of Arizona.
Heckler is survived by her husband, Dr. Christopher Puto.
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