In Remembrance: Todd R. LaPorte

Dear CCRM Friends and Colleagues,

I’m terribly saddened to tell you that Todd R. LaPorte passed away last Friday at the age of 94. Our indefatigable friend and mentor told his son before he died that he’d had “a damn good life.” That sounds like Todd—not the bravado, but the positivity.

The photo above comes from the Workshop we held in Berkeley last April to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the research on high reliability organizations. Todd was a bit worried at the time that he would not have the strength to fully participate. But he was as feisty as ever.

Indeed, that is what many of us will remember about Todd: he never quit fighting the good fight. He was a minister’s son, a marine pilot, and a world-class scholar all rolled into one. A man to emulate.

In 2011, Arjen Boin and I wrote an introduction to a series of articles in the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management honoring Todd’s work. We speculated on what made us want to emulate him:

We want to highlight the role Todd has played not only as a theorist but also as a teacher, mentor, and a friend. Todd LaPorte has inspired many of us to ‘be better than we knew we could be’– a phrase LaPorte often uses in his teaching to talk about his goal of moving people beyond their comfort zone. We call people who consider Todd as a source of inspiration and encouragement ‘LaPortians’.

Many of us at CCRM and beyond are devoted LaPortians. In the photo above, I can just hear Todd asking a question to move the workshop out of its comfort zone! As a young assistant professor, I recall being flummoxed by Todd’s Socratic questioning. Gradually, I came to understand that it was the inquiry and not the answers that matter most. I suspect many of us feel blessed to have been brought into the orbit of Todd’s unceasing intellectual curiosity.

We send love and good wishes to Todd’s beloved family. The man had a gift for knowing how to make each of us feel special and he applied that gift, above all, to his wonderful family.

A date for the memorial service has not yet been set, but we will update you as we learn more.

Chris Ansell, LaPortian and Director of CCRM