In Memoriam: Professor Stephen Senge

We are just over $5,000 away from reaching our goal to endow the Stephen Senge Innovation for Business Teaching Fund! Please consider making your gift today and spread the word about his legacy of outstanding and innovative teaching at WWU so we may ensure that it lives on forever!

Stephen Senge, Professor Emeritus at Western’s College of Business and Economics, passed away in early July 2019.

Senge retired from the College of Business in 2016 after 24 years of service between 1985-2000 and 2007-2016. While he served in leadership roles for much of his career, Dr. Senge was truly dedicated to the craft of teaching. 

From the beginning of his career he excelled in teaching: earning recognition for his teaching style while still in graduate school at Kent State University, receiving Western’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 1988, and being awarded with many Distinguished Professor and Educator of the Year awards from the MBA classes over the years. Aside from the many generations of students who benefited from his dedication to teaching, he was widely regarded as a mentor to faculty and staff throughout the College of Business and Economics.  He was known as someone who could be trusted to listen, distill a problem to its essential elements, advise, and always with kindness and a firm grasp on the larger picture. Dr. Senge is survived by his daughter, Dana.

Prior to retirement, Dr. Senge and the College were discussing the importance of supporting future business educators in their innovation as well as the importance of adapting curriculum to best meet the current needs our students. The College invites those who have a story of Dr. Senge, a memory of his class and would like to help us in the development of a fund so his legacy may live on in perpetuity. This is a project that was close to Steve’s heart and that his daughter, Dana, feels is a wonderful way to remember a beloved professor.

The Stephen Senge Fund for Innovation in Business Education will strive to honor his legacy by providing encouragement and resources to the faculty in our programs to innovate for student success. Support may be provided through teaching awards, curriculum development funding, funding for projects to enrich the curriculum, and training faculty. Curriculum development, enrichment, and other faculty training were all important activities to Steve, and the fund will allow his work to continue posthumously. The goal is to build an endowment, and we are starting at $25,000. Every amount will make a difference, as you provide your support, please use the Donor Wall to tell us a personal story about Professor Senge and that you would like to share with his daughter, Dana and other alums.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts; Dr. Stephen Senge is missed by our campus, students, and faculty.