Professor Emeritus Donald Thain, a retired faculty member from the Ivey Business School. Professor Thain passed away on July 1, 2021. He retired from Western in 1993 after 35 years of service with Western. Read the full obituary here.
Don graduated from University of Toronto Schools (1945) and the Detroit Art Institute (1947). After a successful five-year, Toronto based advertising career, Don went on to the Harvard Business School completing his Master of Business Administration (MBA, 1953) and Doctor of Business Administration (DBA, 1955). In 1956, he joined the faculty of the University of Western Ontario (UWO) School of Business Administration.
Over the course of his long and distinguished career, Don ignited a passion for excellence in over 4,000 HBA, MBA and doctoral students. The far reaching effects of his teaching have been felt in Canadian businesses, international industries and corporate boardrooms. Many of Don's students became renowned industry leaders. Don cherished his colleagues at Western, and Harvard Business schools, co-authoring 14 books, texts and countless classroom cases, some of which are still used today.
Don travelled worldwide as a member of five Canadian Task Forces on agriculture, the aircraft industry, and business and regional development. Don had a passion for hockey, playing for the Windsor Bulldogs in the 1940's while courting his wife, Helen. He proudly helped revive and coach the UWO Western Mustangs with Dr. Willard L'Heureux in 1960. He went on to coach minor hockey teams that produced several future NHLers. Don served as Athletic Director at UWO in the 1960's and was a proud member of the honored 1961 Western Mustangs hockey team
As a 1978-1979 MBA student, Professor Thain's Business Government Relations Class still echoes with the realities of politics and business as a Machiavellian Practice of Misinformation Management not over-ridden with skepticism but with pluck and comabatitive good intentions..