This month we lost a treasured founding associate and beloved friend, Drea Zigarmi. Coming just six months after the passing of founding associate Don Carew, it’s a tough loss, indeed. Not only was Drea talented and brilliant; he was also an extraordinary human being.
I met Drea when I was a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the early 1970s. At that time Drea was working on his PhD in administration and organizational behavior. We became fast friends, and he was soon part of the coterie that included Blanchard’s other founding associates: Pat Kuiper (soon to become Pat Zigarmi), Don Carew, Eunice Parisi-Carew, Fred Finch, and Laurie Hawkins.
Drea and Pat joined our young company in 1981, moving to California with no assurance of a permanent job or income. Drea brought his talent for research and analysis to the company’s key programs and tools: SLII®, DISC, the LBAII, the Employee Work Passion instrument, and many others. Another of Drea’s significant contributions was the work he did with CEO, Scott Blanchard, on the Leadership-Profit Chain.
Drea’s work was a key factor in Blanchard’s success. He kept us grounded in the research that underscored the validity of our offerings.
Drea brought tremendous value to our organization in so many other ways as well. A natural teacher and guide, he helped scores of people with their research, dissertations, and publishing. For decades, he was a popular Blanchard consultant and trainer. Participants loved the depth and creativity of his teaching about leadership, values, organizational change, and research. For example, he enlivened the teaching of SLII® by showcasing the dialogue in the film Twelve O’Clock High, much to the delight of his audiences.
With more peer-reviewed publications than most senior university professors, Drea was an accomplished writer. He was the coauthor of several books, including Leadership and the One Minute Manager, The Leader Within, Leading at a Higher Level, Achieve Leadership Genius, and The Team Leader’s Idea-a-Day Guide.
Drea was a deeply contemplative person. You could get a sense of this when you heard him play classical guitar. At parties you could often find him in a quiet spot engaged in earnest conversation. I will miss our periodic one-on-one walks together and his delightfully corny jokes.
Many in our field and company owe a debt of gratitude for Drea’s wisdom, guidance, and encouragement. His brilliance lives on in our intellectual property, and his loving spirit will live in our hearts forever.