Hall of Fame Inductees

2005: Edward de Bono
Dr. Edward de Bono is widely regarded as one of the world's leading authorities in the field of creative and conceptual thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. He has authored 60 books translated into 35 languages on the topic of thinking. His sessions, invariably sellouts, are sought after by business, government, and education globally.

Born in Malta and graduated from the University of Malta, he attended Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, where he earned his M.D. and two Ph.D.s. He has held faculty appointments at the University of Oxford, Cambridge, London, and Harvard. He is the originator of the term "Lateral Thinking," which has an official entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, and the extremely popular "Six Thinking Hats" concept. He has made two TV series: "De Bono's Thinking Course" for the BBC and "The Greatest Thinkers" for WDR, Germany. His corporate clients include IBM, DuPont, Prudential, Siemens, Electrolux, Shell, Exxon, NTT, Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, Ford, Microsoft, AT&T, Saatchi, and many more.

A few recent highlights include the following... The International Astronomical Union named a planet after Dr. de Bono in recognition of his contribution to humanity. A group of South African University professors compiled a list of the 250 most influential people in the history of humanity and included Dr. de Bono. There are 4 million references to Dr. de Bono on the Internet.

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2004: E. Paul Torrance
Dr. E. Paul Torrance, Alumni Foundation Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Educational Psychology at the University of Georgia, devoted his career to teaching and researching creativity, and along the way, he produced over 2000 professional articles and books that influenced thousands of people. Torrance, known to many as 'The Father of Modern Creativity" devoted himself to increasing our understanding of human creativity and was a champion of all who were underserved or disenfranchised because of their "differentness."

Torrance was the recipient of the Arthur Lipper Award of the World Olympics of the Mind for outstanding original contributions to human creativity, an elected member of Who's Who in the World, Director of the Bureau of Educational Research at the University of Minnesota, and founder of the Future Problem Solving Program. He taught and conducted research at Georgia Military College, Kansas State University, University of Minnesota, and the University of Michigan. He was world renowned for his work in assessing and enhancing creativeness. His Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTTC), designed to identify and develop the creative abilities of children and adults, have been used extensively in education and translated into several languages. Prior to earning his doctorate in Educational Psychology at the University of Michigan, he designed and conducted what would now be recognized as "creativity" training for the US Air Force Advanced Survival School, and his classic ace pilot study contributed to our early understanding of risk, conflict, and effective team achievement in complex situations.

He championed ACA from the outset and was dearly loved for his gentle and generous spirit and his remarkable mentoring of countless students of creativity of all ages and in many countries. His creative soul lives on in the work of thousands who grew through his contributions.

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2004: Sidney Parnes
Dr. Sidney Parnes is Professor Emeritus of Creative Studies and Founding Director of the Center for Creative Studies at the State University College at Buffalo. He attended the first Creative Problem Solving Institute (CPSI) in 1955 with Alex Osborn as his mentor. The following year, he became director of the Institute at the University of Buffalo. Between 1955 and 1966, Dr. Parnes worked with Alex Osborn to develop the "Osborn-Parnes" creative problem solving process. In 1967, he moved to the State University College at Buffalo, where he established the Interdisciplinary Center for Creative Studies, now known as the International Center for Studies in Creativity.

At Buffalo State, Parnes and his colleagues designed and conducted the now classic "Creative Studies Project," which followed undergraduates in an experimental group over six semesters of creativity instruction. The results of this study provided the initial research base that addressed the question, "Is creativity teachable?" In 1975, he initiated the first Master of Science Degree Program in Creative Studies in the world at Buffalo. From 1967 to 1984, he served as President of the Creative Education Foundation. In this role he presented workshops on creativity in business, education, and government throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia and oversaw the origination and development of the Journal of Creative Behavior, the first and longest running English language journal on creativity in the world.

A lifelong researcher, author, and practitioner extraordinaire, Parnes has written and contributed to numerous books on creativity. Many people have benefited from Sid's advice, support and mentoring. In honoring him with this award, we celebrate his support of ACA and all creativity organizations worldwide.