Whether spearheading the business school’s international programs, mentoring younger faculty members or organizing excursions with colleagues at his lakeside summer home, Lee Preston always took the lead.
Preston, 81, a professor emeritus in the business school who lived in College Park, died of prostate cancer on Nov. 22. During his 18 years as a business school faculty member, Preston was a forerunner in creating new international business education and research opportunities on the campus.
During the 1990s, he served as founding director of the university’s Center for International Business Education and Research, directed the business school’s doctoral program and created a joint master’s program between this university and the University of Lodz in Poland.
“He exemplified the best traits of a professor,” said business professor Curt Grimm, who worked with Preston for about 30 years.
“He really took it upon himself as a research leader to step up and take the lead in bringing the business school forward. He wasn’t one of those types who would be like, ‘Well, maybe someone else will do it.’ He led by example and was very generous with his time.”
Born July 28, 1930, Preston majored in economics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. on a competitive scholarship and earned his doctorate degree in economics from Harvard. He also served in the U.S. Army for two years in Germany. During the 1950s, he served in the Kennedy Administration’s Office of the Council of Economic Advisors. After teaching business at the University of California, Berkeley and directing a research institute at the University of Buffalo, Preston came to this university in 1980. And Grimm said when he first joined the business school faculty two years later, Preston quickly became a mentor to him and many other younger professors.
“If you ever had a research draft you wanted to submit for publication, you could go to him and he would give a very careful read and then give very helpful comments,” Grimm said. “He was a great colleague and a great mentor.”
Preston’s work took him all over the globe, and along the way he authored or co-authored about 200 publications and earned several university and international accolades. In 1994 he was named a Distinguished Scholar Teacher at Maryland and in 1996 he earned the University’s Distinguished International Service Award.
Even after retiring in 1998, Preston continued to actively pursue his passions for history, the arts and globe-trotting. He served at several European universities as a visiting scholar, served as a faculty and staff ombudsman at the university for three years and volunteered at the National Archives. He also supported and attended many performances at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, granting an endowed scholarship to the university’s music school out of his love for music and opera.
“He was a very thoughtful, very considerate person,” said Preston’s wife of more than 50 years, Pat. “Totally thoughtful and hardworking but always took time to enjoy life.”
Pat Preston said even in the midst of his travels and heavy workload, her husband never once neglected his loved ones.
“He was a very devoted grandfather of 10 grandchildren,” she said. “He loved sharing time with his family, and he enjoyed having his colleagues come over to the house in Deep Creek Lake, [Md.].”
Grimm said he made many fond memories at Preston’s summer home alongside his co-workers, from hiking in the mountains to taking Preston’s boat out on the lake to simply sitting down for dinner with Preston’s family.
And it was his mentor’s willingness to go out of his way for his friends and colleagues that Grimm said he will always remember.
“He was very lively, very energetic. He was a fun person to go to lunch with,” Grimm said. “We had a lot of great conversations.”
Lee Preston is survived by his wife Pat, daughter Katherine Simpson, son James Preston, daughter Mary Preston and 10 grandchildren. There will be a memorial service Sunday at 2 p.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in College Park.
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