In Memoriam: William “Bill” Rockwell Torbert

In 1978, Dr. Torbert launched his 30-year tenure as graduate dean of the Carroll School of Management and director of the doctoral program in organizational transformation. The school’s M.B.A. program rose in rankings from below 100 to 25th nationally during his deanship.

In addition to teaching, he became the leader of an international community dedicated to “action inquiry,” the study of self-transformation in the process of understanding the world. He authored or co-authored numerous professional articles on the topic and conceived Collaborative Development Action Inquiry (CDAI), a method that integrates first-, second-, and third-person perspectives to transform individuals, organizations, and social science.

In 1991, Dr. Torbert won the first Carroll School M.B.A. Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award. He received the David L. Bradford Distinguished Educator Award from the Organization Behavior Teaching Society in 2008 and was named Leadership Professor Emeritus at BC.  

“Bill was an academic force,” said Andy Boynton, the John and Linda Powers Family Dean of the Carroll School.  “His prodigious writing, teaching, and engagement with students and the academic field at large were extraordinary. Moreover, he was one of the most innovative faculty members the Carroll School has ever had. He was always coming up with new ideas and new perspectives to management’s most complex and important challenges, and people paid attention to his ideas! What a great colleague, and scholar.”

In 2012, Dr. Torbert founded and led Action Inquiry Associates LLC, a consulting and leadership development firm that uses his action-logics—strategies outlined in his 2004 book, Action Inquiry: The Secret of Timely and Transforming Leadership.

“Bill Torbert was a scholar way ahead of his time, who integrated three levels of analysis in his work—individual, organizational, and the bigger social picture—all into timely action,” said Galligan Chair of Strategy Sandra Waddock, the Carroll School Scholar of Corporate Responsibility. “To this day, I use his ideas about action inquiry—a way to engage in difficult conversations successfully through framing, advocating, illustrating and inquiring—in my teaching. Bill brought his unique brand of instruction and leadership to the school and put the M.B.A. program on the map.”

Dr. Torbert and Waddock also worked for 17 years in Leadership for Change, a program developed with the Sociology Department. “It was always a joy to work with him: He was fun, funny, and personable in addition to being a brilliant thinker and accomplished teacher. He will be greatly missed,” said Waddock.

Dr. Torbert’s groundbreaking work on CDAI was the foundation for the launch of Global Leadership Associates, a London-based organizational development firm he co-founded in 2016 and then served as director emeritus.

“Bill did a wonderful job as the dean of the graduate school, invigorating the program and introducing creative new dimensions,” said Jean Bartunek, the Robert A. and Evelyn J. Ferris Professor at the Carroll School.  “He was an extremely good administrator, handling the more mundane aspects of making the program function bureaucratically extremely well. He was very good at taking scholarly knowledge—in several cases knowledge that he had helped create and develop—and translating it into practice in ways that M.B.A. students could understand and that fostered their development.  

“Bill was a very charismatic instructor, who inspired several of our students very profoundly, and some stayed in touch with him until the end of his life. We were lucky to have him in the department.”

Dr. Torbert also served on the boards of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Trillium Asset Management, and the Helsinki-based consulting firm Amara Collaboration.

The elder son of Ambassador Horace Gates Torbert Jr., Dr. Torbert spent much of his childhood abroad, where he became fluent in Spanish, French, and German. Returning to the United States, he attended Phillips Academy Andover and graduated magna cum laude from Yale University, where he was an editor, a columnist, and vice chair of the Yale Daily News— whose managing editor was David Gergen, later a presidential advisor and political commentator. Dr. Torbert also earned a doctorate in individual and organizational behavior from Yale.

Dr. Torbert began his academic career as associate director of the Yale Summer High School, then founded and led the Yale Upward Bound Program, which focused on providing academic support to New Haven high school students from low-income backgrounds or first-generation families to prepare them for college success.

He was an assistant professor at the Southern Methodist University School of Business, then an associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for four years, followed by two years as the founder and director of The Theatre of Inquiry Inc., a research community based on his CDAI.

The last of his 11 books was the anti-heroic, signature memoir, Numbskull in the Theatre of Inquiry, which recounts his early life in Spain, Austria, Italy, and Somalia as the son of a diplomat and foreign service officer, concluding with his creation of “The Theatre of Inquiry.”

“Bill Torbert played an important role in the Management and Organization department,” said Judith A. Clair, a Carroll School professor and the William S. McKiernan ’78 Family Faculty Fellow. “He shaped the department’s culture of inquisitiveness and community in ways that are still apparent today. Several generations of students were profoundly shaped by his research and philosophy, focused on themes including personal and organizational transformation, and reflective practice.”

Dr. Torbert is survived by his wife, Reichi Yeh Torbert, and sons Michael, Patrick, and Benjamin; his brother, James, and nieces Laura Rahe and Alice Coyle: his former wife and mother of his sons, Jennifer Cassettari; and five grandchildren.

Services for Dr. Torbert will be private; a celebration of life event will be held at a later date.