Rick Nelson,
associate professor of business management at the University of Pittsburgh at
Bradford, will retire at the end of the Fall semester.
A native of Warren, where he still
lives with his wife of 44 years, Susan, he earned his Bachelor of Science
degree in business administration from Central Connecticut State University and
his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of
Connecticut.
He was a commercial bank auditor in
Connecticut and an investment researcher for Citicorp Inc. before he started
teaching at Pitt-Bradford in 1985. In 1985, he inherited the leadership of the
business management program from his good friend, the late David Blackmore, who
had created one of the first four-year majors at Pitt-Bradford. Nelson led the
program through 2011, overseeing creation of the areas of specialization within
the major, which became the most popular on campus, and establishing ties with
a variety of businesses across the region.
His teaching has focused on the area
of finance, and he is not only a Chartered Financial Analyst, but also has
served as a senior grader for the CFA Level III examinations since 1997.
Currently he is a curriculum consultant for the CFA.
Earlier this year, he was added by
the Educational Testing Service to the committee of academics who develop
finance questions for the MBA assessment test to be used for the next three
years, beginning in 2013. He wrote about half of the finance-related questions
in the new text.
He has written articles published
not only in the academic world, but also in The New York Times, The Hartford
Courant and Gentleman’s Quarterly.
Nelson has enjoyed teaching abroad
on several occasions, including serving as a visiting professor at the Shanghai
Institute of Technology in Shanghai, China, in 2006; as a visiting lecturer at
Can Tho University in Can Tho, Vietnam, in 2009; and as a visiting professor
and lecturer at Heilbronn University in Heilbronn, Germany, in 2011.
During his time in Vietnam, he was
able to revisit some of the places where he served from 1968 to 1970 during the
Vietnam War. He served in the 198th Brigade of the Combat Infantry
Company and was discharged as a sergeant.
Nelson will return to Heilbronn in
June 2013 to teach Security Analysis. He was instrumental in setting up the
exchange agreement between Pitt-Bradford and Heilbronn, which began when he
became friends with a German professor, Dr. Mathias Moersch, through the CFA
Institute.
The Nelsons plan to remain in Warren
and visit their two daughters, both of whom live in the Pittsburgh area, on a
regular basis.
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