Cornell University's ILR School has established an annual Labor Day lecture honoring former dean and labor-relations scholar Robert B. McKersie.
ILR Dean Alexander Colvin delivered the inaugural Robert and Nancy McKersie Labor Day Lecture on Sept. 4 at Cornell.
The event was created through a gift from McKersie and his wife, Nancy, and is intended to examine his ideas and their continuing influence on bargaining, negotiation and labor relations.
McKersie served as ILR dean from 1971 to 1979 and worked in industrial relations for roughly six decades. Colvin said his scholarship produced foundational ideas still used to understand negotiations and workplace relations.
Professor Bob Smith, part of a generation of faculty hired while McKersie was dean, opened the event with reflections on his leadership.
McKersie's son, Will, also addressed the audience and discussed the importance his father placed on relationships in both scholarship and family life.
Colvin's lecture, “McKersie on Labor at America's 250th,” reviewed the former dean's most influential work and considered its relevance to labor relations today.
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