David Fearon, Sr. is a retired professor of management & organizational behavior, living in New Hartford, CT and enjoying being underfoot.  It was in 1969, at the start of his doctoral leadership studies at the University of Connecticut, that Dave became Peter Vaill’s student, then dissertation advisee through 1974. This collaboration fused Dave’s still-deepening fascination with organizing for efficacy at the point of action; now, as Practice.

 

Keeping his 50-year academic career as close as possible to action-takers, Dave has taught and led in several regionally-centered public universities where most students work while attending college. His management courses, workshops, and consultancies capitalize on the value of the practitioner-learner knowledge and their experiential learning.

 

Dave strives to inspire learner ownership of theory for future use. He finds rapidly arising, real-time learning challenges press practitioners to create workable knowledge on the spot; addressing daily barrages of disorderly questions raised in novel circumstances. Thus, when Peter reached out to join him in the cause of casting Practice in a leading role, Dave welcomed reprising Vaill-Fearon conversations that once launched, fifty years ago, and still sustains, his teaching practice.