Seattle University. Executive Thinking Program.

The Executive Thinking Program, offered at Seattle University from 1958-1968, was directed by Thomas J. O'Brien, SJ chair of the undergraduate Honors Program. The curriculum was patterned after similar seminars offered at Harvard University and in Aspen, Colorado. The program was a non-credit seminar for Seattle area business and professional leaders designed to hone their skills in communication, analyzing complex ideas, and to supplement their knowledge of economics, politics and ethical thought. The annual program emphasized culture and thought over management training skills. The seminar reading list centered on the Great Books, the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum, the Upanishads and Hindu philosophy, the Bible, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Newton, Descartes, Lock, Hegel, Marx and others. Participants engaged in dialogue with an emphasis on active listening to the ideas and opinions of others. The overall goal of the seminar was to promote a deeper understanding of self in order to create a more integrated and purposeful human being. Tuition was paid by firms employing the participants, including: Seattle Trust and Savings Bank, Western Gear Corporation, Hydraulic Manufacturing Company, PACCAR, Sicks' Rainier Brewing Company, Overlake Transit Company, John Doyle Bishop Inc., Bell Telephone Company, Puget Sound Power and Light Company, Sears Roebuck, Western Hotels, Seattle First National Bank, and Boeing Airplane Company. When Father O'Brien was reassigned to San Francisco in 1968 the program languished. An initiative to revive the Executive Thinking Program at Seattle University in 1982, under Sister Rosaleen Trainor, CSJ was unsuccessful.

The Executive Thinking Program, offered at Seattle University from 1958-1968, was directed by Thomas J. O'Brien, SJ chair of the undergraduate Honors Program. The curriculum was patterned after similar seminars offered at Harvard University and in Aspen, Colorado. The program was a non-credit seminar for Seattle area business and professional leaders designed to hone their skills in communication, analyzing complex ideas, and to supplement their knowledge of economics, politics and ethical thought. The annual program emphasized culture and thought over management training skills. The seminar reading list centered on the Great Books, the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum, the Upanishads and Hindu philosophy, the Bible, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Newton, Descartes, Lock, Hegel, Marx and others. Participants engaged in dialogue with an emphasis on active listening to the ideas and opinions of others. The overall goal of the seminar was to promote a deeper understanding of self in order to create a more integrated and purposeful human being. Tuition was paid by firms employing the participants, including Seattle Trust and Savings Bank, Western Gear Corporation, Hydraulic Manufacturing Company, PACCAR, Sicks' Rainier Brewing Company, Overlake Transit Company, John Doyle Bishop Inc., Bell Telephone Company, Puget Sound Power and Light Company, Sears Roebuck, Western Hotels, Seattle First National Bank, and Boeing Airplane Company. When Father O'Brien was reassigned to San Francisco in 1968 the program languished. An initiative to revive the Executive Thinking Program at Seattle University in 1982, under Sister Rosaleen Trainor, CSJ was unsuccessful.