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Rufus Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. (1944 – 2013), known professionally as R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., was an American educator, author, speaker, and management consultant, particularly in the areas of managing diversity. For more than three decades, Thomas consulted Fortune 500 companies, corporations, professional firms, government entities, non-profit organizations and academic institutions. He is the author of seven books on managing diversity. As the founder and first president of the American Institute for Managing Diversity Thomas was referred to as the “father of diversity” and recognized as a pioneer in the global diversity industry.

Early life and education

Rufus Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. was born on May 24, 1944 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Rufus R. Thomas, Sr. (1917 - 1999), and Icye Potts Thomas. He was the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Thomas, and Ollie Robert Potts and Lela M. Potts.

Thomas was raised in Chattanooga, along with his brother, Robert Potts Thomas. He attended Chattanooga Public Schools and graduated from Howard High School in 1962.

Thomas went to college at Morehouse, where he received his B.A. summa cum laude in Mathematics in 1966. He was elected Phi Beta Kappa at Morehouse. For graduate school, he attended the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he earned a M.B.A. in Finance. Following graduation, he returned to Morehouse and taught economics, finance and accounting.

In 1970, Thomas enrolled at Harvard Business School. The following year, he married Ruby L. Jones (Judge Ruby J. Thomas), a Wellesley College graduate. In 1974, Thomas received his D.B.A. in Organizational Behavior from Harvard Business School, while a member of the HBS faculty. His doctoral thesis at Harvard was titled, “The Management of the Liberal Arts College: A Case Study.”

Career

Harvard Business School

Thomas began his career as an assistant professor at Harvard Business School, serving on the faculty until 1978.

Clark Atlanta University

In 1979, Thomas was recruited to be the dean of the business school at Clark Atlanta University (formerly Atlanta University).

American Institute for Managing Diversity

In 1984, Thomas founded the American Institute for Managing Diversity, a nonprofit diversity think tank located on Morehouse’s campus. Thomas is credited with broadening the topic of managing diversity in organizations to move beyond affirmative action to include all employees. He argued that managing diversity should viewed as a strategy to empower employees, that an organization should look at its employees’ diversity as an asset, and manage that diversity as an optimal way to conduct business.

Thomas was considered to be one of the pre-eminent authorities on diversity in the United States, and one of the country’s most influential human resources consultants.

Morehouse College

In 1988, Thomas was appointed Secretary of Morehouse, and served until 1993.

Death

On May 17, 2013, Thomas fell and hit his head after exercising in his home gym and never regained consciousness. His funeral was held on Friday, May 24, 2013, at Friendship Baptist Church (Atlanta), and was attended by an overflow crowd of business associates, diversity executives, family and friends from across the country.

Personal

Thomas was married for forty-two years to Judge Ruby J. Thomas (nee Jones), an Atlanta native who attended Wellesley College and Georgia State University School of Law. The couple had three children: Warren Shane Thomas, Jarred Thomas, and April Thomas.

Thomas was member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity (Boule).

Awards and honors

• 1995: Received the American Society for Training and Development’s Distinguished Contribution to Human Resource Development’s Award.
• 1998: Elected and installed as a Fellow at the National Academy of Human Resources
• 2003: Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) board member (until 2005)
• 2005: Trailblazer in Diversity Award, Bennett College’s Chief Diversity Officers Forum.

Publications

• Thomas, Roosevelt R., Jr. (March-April 1990). ‘From Affirmative Action to Affirming Diversity, Harvard Business Review.
• Thomas, Roosevelt R., Jr. (1991). Beyond Race and Gender: Unleashing the Power of Your Total Workforce, New York: AMACOM.
• Thomas, Roosevelt R., Jr. (1991). Total Quality of Managing Diversity. Executive Leadership Council.
• Thomas, Roosevelt R., Jr. (1992). Differences Do Make a Difference. American Institute for Managing Diversity, Inc.
• Thomas, Roosevelt R., Jr. (1996). Redefining Diversity, New York, NY: AMACOM, 1996.
• Thomas, Roosevelt R., Jr. and Marjorie I. Woodruff (1999). Building a House for Diversity: A Fable about a Giraffe and an Elephant offers New Strategies for Today’s Workforce. New York: AMACOM Books.
• Thomas, Roosevelt R., Jr. (1999). “Diversity Management: Some Measurement Criteria,” Employment Relations Today, Winter 1999, pp. 49-62.
• Thomas, Roosevelt R., Jr. (2002). The Giraffe and Elephant: A Diversity Fable. American Institute for Managing Diversity, Inc. AMACOM, a division of the American Management Association.
• Thomas, Roosevelt R., Jr. (2010). World Class Diversity Management: A Strategic Approach. SBN: 1605094501. ISBN-13: 9781605094502.

References

1. ^ Profile (2013). Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. Diversity Officer Magazine.
2. ^ Brotherton, Phaedra, and R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. (May 19, 2011). An interview with R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., CEO of R. Thomas Consulting & Training and the founder of the American Institute for Managing Diversity Inc., a research and education enterprise. Association for Talent Development.
3. ^ People, Locations, Episodes: R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr., Administrative Activist born on Wed, 05.24.1944. African American Registry.
4. ^ Obituary (May 21, 2013). Thomas, R. Roosevelt, Jr.. Chattanoogan.com.
5. ^ Nicklin, Julie L. (September 30, 1992). Helping to Manage Diversity in the Work Force. The Chronicle of Higher Education.
6. ^ Funeral program (May 24, 2013). Celebrating the Life and Times of Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr.
7. ^ About Us: Judge Ruby J. Thomas.
8. ^ Black Faculty Members at Harvard Business School, 1954-Present*. “R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr., Assistant Professor, 1973 - 1978, DBA 1974.” Harvard Business School.
9. HBS Doctoral Students, 1955-2018.* Harvard Business School.
10. ^ Bormann, Tammy, and Susan Woods, Chari Fuerstenau, Deborah Joseph, Candace Brooks-Cooper, Catherine Ouellette, Jennie Farley (Fall 2000). for Workplace Diversity An Annotated Practitioner Guide to Information, Third Edition with Index. The Workplace Diversity Network: A Joint Project of The National Conference for Community and Justice and Cornell University ILR.
11. Garnett, Carla (December 5, 1995). Communities in Unity: Morella, Wynn Address NIH Diversity Congress. The NIH Record, Vol. XLVTl No. 25. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National lnstitutes of Health. p. 8-9.
12. Thomas, R. Roosevelt, Jr. (July 22, 2010). From the Board Room to the Beer Summit and Beyond - Diversity Management Pioneer, Dr. R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. Offers Commentary and a Broad Framework to Address Any Diversity Mixture, in Any Setting, and in Any Geographic Location in His Latest Book. PR Newswire.
13. From Affirmative Action to Affirming Diversity by R. Roosevelt Thomas, Jr. . Harvard Business Review. March–April 1990.

• 1944 births
• American business theorists
• American business writers
• American management consultants
• Morehouse College alumni
• University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni
• Morehouse College faculty
• Harvard University faculty
• Harvard Business School alumni
• 20th-century African-American academics
• 20th-century American academics
• 21st-century African-American academics
• 21st-century American academics
• African-American academic administrators
• American academic administrators
• Black studies scholars
• Leadership scholars
• 20th-century American male writers
• 21st-century American male writers
• Academics from Tennessee
• African-American non-fiction writers
• American essayists
• American male essayists
• American male non-fiction writers
• American non-fiction writers
• People from Chattanooga, Tennessee
• 2013 deaths