Albert W. Isenman III was an award-winning instructor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and later the school’s director of Custom Executive Programs.
In that role, he developed programs the university created for major companies and government agencies, said Stephen Burnett, professor of strategy at the school.
“He marketed and sold the programs and was my point person for highly customized programs designed for both the FBI and CIA,” said Burnett, who for more than a decade was associate dean of Executive Education, with Mr. Isenman under him.
“In the classroom he had a dramatic flair to his teaching that was both effective and entertaining for his students. He was energetic and used his quick wit to provoke questions and keep his classes dynamic.”
Mr. Isenman, 66, of Evanston, died of complications related to frontotemporal dementia Monday, Oct. 6, at Midwest Palliative and Hospice in Glenview.
A longtime professor of management and strategy at Kellogg, he was director of the school’s Custom Executive Programs from 2003 to 2011
“He was someone who always noticed the details and remembered places and dates,” said his wife, Cecelia. “It was the little things that really mattered to him, like making a point of pronouncing the names of each one of his students correctly.”
Born and raised in Little Rock, Ark., Mr. Isenman graduated in 1970 from the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English. From 1970 to 1974, he was the director of obstetrics/gynecology and Neonatal Nurseries at Evanston Hospital, responsible for all non-clinical activities in those sections.
From 1974 to 1984, Mr. Isenman was the director of special projects for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Chicago, where he managed grant-supported research projects and worked with the physician volunteer program for the Indian Health Service. During that time he received a Northwestern MBA in 1976 and a doctorate in management and strategy in 1984.
In 1983, Mr. Isenman donated a kidney to his brother, Tommy, in a life-saving transplant.
“It was something he really wanted to do for his brother and he went about it in a very matter-of-fact manner,” his wife said. “He did the research beforehand and made sure he was a good candidate for the transplant. Then he scheduled his work schedule around it.”
During the mid-1980s, Mr. Isenman taught business courses at the University of Toronto, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok and Loyola University in Chicago.
He was a licensed pilot, and while teaching at the University of Toronto often flew his Piper airplane back and forth from Chicago. During one of those flights out of Canada he was forced to do an emergency landing shortly after take-off when one of his engines failed, his wife said.
“He brought the plane down in an open field and then walked to the nearest farmhouse,” his wife said. “Then he calmly explained to the woman there what had happened and asked to use her phone.
“That was Al. Not a whole lot flustered him.”
In 1988, Mr. Isenman joined the faculty at Kellogg, where he remained until his retirement from teaching in 2012.
Mr. Isenman also is survived by a son, Albert W. (Walt) Isenman IV, and a sister, Mary Isenman.
A memorial will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday at Northwestern’s Vail Chapel, 1870 Sheridan Road, Evanston.
