The July 3 death at 78 of Drucker School emeritus professor Joseph A. Maciariello has reverberated around the world, especially among his many years worth of devoted students. Much of our understanding about the work of Peter Drucker has come about through Joe’s work, writing, and scholarship. In the years before Drucker’s death at 95 in 2005, no one worked more closely with him. They were friends, colleagues, and collaborators on many articles and books.
To get a sense of just how extraordinary a Joe person he was, spend some time with these ten articles, posts, and videos:
Articles and Posts:
Claremont Courier obituary: Joseph Anthony Maciariello
Claremont Graduate University/Drucker School: Passings: Joseph Maciariello (1941-2020), Peter Drucker’s ‘Legitimate Successor’
Corporate Learning Network: In Memoriam: Joseph A. Maciariello – Extending Drucker’s Principles & Practices to the 21st Century
Drucker Institute: Remembering Joe Maciariello
Global Peter Drucker Forum: Joseph A. Maciariello: A man with a message; by Timo Meynhardt
Videos:
Biola University Leadership Lecture Series: Joseph Maciariello – Peter Drucker’s Theology of Work 2012
Convene Summit: Dr. Joseph Maciariello // A Year with Drucker 2016
Drucker School: Lifetime Achievement Award for Joseph Maciariello 2017
HHL – Leipzig Leadership Model | Interview: Prof. Joseph Maciariello & Prof. Dr. Timo Meynhardt 2016
TEDxOrangeCoast – Joseph Maciariello – Who will drive unbounded innovation in the United States 2011
The above sources provide many details about Joe’s life, teaching, writing, and work history. In addition, I’d like to call attention to some inspiring and distinctive aspects that should not go overlooked. (1) Even though he had a lengthy career, he didn’t start on the intensive Drucker-related work until he was in his mid-50s. (2) He combined a background and experience in numbers and systems with emotional intelligence and spirituality, into his approach to work. (3) He applied formidable skills of information organization to making the understanding of Drucker’s work more manageable. This was especially accomplished through the innovative formats in A Year with Peter Drucker: 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness, and his direct collaborations with Peter Drucker: The Daily Drucker, Management: Revised Edition, and The Effective Executive in Action.
As for my connections to him, rather than repeat myself I’ll quote from my 2014 blog post about A Year with Peter Drucker: “My life has been enriched by a friendship with Maciariello going back to 2002, when he was the first person I interviewed for Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. His new book reinforces why his direct work with Peter Drucker, and intensive research and writing on Drucker’s contributions, continues to expand our understanding of why Drucker remains important and influential, especially for new generations of leaders and readers.”
In 2011, he and coauthor Karen E. Linkletter wrote a magisterial book, Drucker’s Lost Art of Management: Peter Drucker’s Timeless Vision For Building Effective Organizations. In my blog post about it, I wrote: “The authors explore in detail the roots of Drucker’s thinking that led to his idea of “management as a liberal art,” and his development as a dominant force in modern management.” Joe’s legacy, beyond his teaching and work, may well be the integrity and virtue he embodied as a human being, reflected especially in his students, family, and friends. On the next to last page of A Year With Peter Drucker, in referencing Drucker’s well-known legacy question of “What do you want to be remembered for?,” he writes the following: “We have seen that if we, like Peter Drucker, take an eternal view, only people last. Therefore, it is what we do in and for the lives of people that is most likely to outlive us.”