Rucci receives Ohio State's highest teaching award

Published: 2013-02-21

When a group led by Ohio State President Gordon Gee, Fisher leadership and friends crashed en masse on Anthony Rucci’s Leadership Legacy class to surprise him with the university’s highest teaching award, it was more like an ambush of affection.

“I had the opportunity to read all of these nominations and you would have thought you had died and gone to heaven,” Gee said to Rucci, who sat frozen and stunned in the back of the classroom.  “It’s obvious your impact as a faculty member of this university is much wider than you could possibly imagine. The raves go on-and-on-and-on.  So, your classes and your mentorship are changing the world.”

Before a packed classroom of 70 students, Rucci, a clinical professor of Management and Human Resources (MHR), received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching. The highest teaching award given annually, it recognizes a maximum of 10 faculty for their teaching excellence.

Gee was accompanied by Fisher Dean Christine Poon, Senior Associate Deans Stephen Mangum and Anil Makhija, MHR Department Chair David Greenberger, and Associate Clinical Professor of MHR Larry Inks.

Students, faculty, and alumni nominate faculty for the award; and a committee of students, previous recipients, and alumni chooses the recipients.

Greenberger, among those who nominated Rucci for the award, made special note of the genuine care and attention Rucci gives to individual students and as well as former students. “Most important is his informal advising, because this has a lasting impact,” Greenberger wrote. “Students have spoken to me about the impact that Tony has had on them, how they look at themselves and the impact on their activities in the future.”

Rucci is most noted for teaching the very popular electives, “Creating Your Leadership Legacy” and “Advanced Topics in Leadership: Building your Leadership Legacy.

One Executive MBA alumnus wrote about Rucci and the leadership legacy course: “I am at a major crossroads in my life. I have used my leadership legacy statement to figure out my approach to handling this. Seriously, it is the single best thing I have in my tool kit for life.”