The closing of the school year in May marks not only the end of classes, but also the retirement of a beloved and highly accomplished professor.
Tom Speh, a professor of supply chain and logistics management classes in the marketing department, has chosen to retire after 35 years of service to Miami University and the Farmer School of Business.
"The business school will lose one of our best and most globally renowned teachers," said Roger Jenkins, dean of the Farmer School of Business. "His retirement will be a significant loss for us."
In addition to his global reputation as a supply chain and logistics innovator, Speh has served as assistant director of Miami's MBA program, associate dean of the Farmer School of Business, director of the Warehousing Research Center as well as chair of the department of marketing in two separate terms. He is also credited as the leader in establishing the supply chain major and minor, as well as creating and teaching the first new course in that curriculum.
According to Speh, his time spent at Miami will be remembered in a positive light.
"I have never felt like I worked a day in my life," Speh said. "I could never find a more satisfying thing to do. I feel like the luckiest guy alive. I hope I've maybe helped students to learn a few things, have a passion for what they are doing and I hope I've helped them to find themselves in their work."
According to senior Stuart Ostro, a marketing major with a supply chain management minor, Speh has done just that.
"In my four years spent at Miami, he has been far and away the best teacher I've had," Ostro said. "He's inspired me to pursue a career in logistics."
According to Ostro, the interest that Speh takes in his students is what makes him so special.
"He inspires students to take a genuine interest in their field and he really cares about each student's success," Ostro said.
The relationships that Speh has established and maintains with his current and former students have gained him the respect of students, faculty and alumni.
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"He is one of the last of the real Miami warriors who has given his heart and soul to advance the careers of students long after graduation," Jenkins said. "I haven't worked with a person for whom I have more respect, for his deep caring and genuine commitment to excellence in all that he does."
Jenkins, along with Kirk Bogard of the Miami University Alumni Association and Greg Wagner, a former student of Speh's, are working to set up an endowment fund in honor of his legacy.
They hope to raise enough money to create a distinguished professorship of faculty excellence in supply chain management.
"Our most important goal is to find a tangible way of acknowledging his contributions to Miami and to the Farmer School of Business," Jenkins said.
Though Speh is leaving his teaching position, he will continue working at Miami as a part-time administrator in the MBA program.
It was announced April 16 that Speh will receive the prestigious Benjamin Harrison Medallion during May commencement.
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