On July 10, 2011, the World Future Society (WFS) honored founder and chairman Clem Bezold with a Lifetime Achievement Award during the Society’s annual meeting, held this year in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Accepting the award, Bezold acknowledged author Alvin Toffler and scholar Jim Dator as among the “advocates and diplomats for our field”. He also commented on his own efforts to explicitly include aspirational pictures of the future in his work. Since 1975, WFS has honored individuals for a lifetime of distinguished service. Recipients have included media critic Marshall McLuhan (1980), Futuribles International founder Bertrand de Jouvenel (1980), inventor Buckminster Fuller (1982), author Isaac Asimov (1986), and more than a dozen others.
Since Clem established IAF in 1977, he has been a major developer of foresight techniques, applying futures research and strategic planning methods in both the public and private sectors. He has worked with many Fortune 500 companies and major organizations including the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, the Rockefeller Foundation, AARP, the American Cancer Society, and the American Medical Association. This award is a welcome acknowledgement of Clem’s many contributions to the field of futures studies.
We are proud to have Mr. Bezold on our advisory board for our Future Studies Master’s program here at the University of Houston. We congratulate both he and his family for his work and accomplishments in future studies and foresight.
