Anyone who has gone to business school knows the name, Peter F. Drucker.

He was known as the father of modern management.

He was revered for his "quality" books and his articles inspiring innovation, entrepreneurship and strategies for dealing with a changing world.

He was known as "uproariously funny" and a man with a great rapport.

While my father taught me to hire people smarter than myself and then delegate, Mr. Drucker taught entrepreneurs like me that dedicated employees are key to the success of any company.

On Friday, Peter Drucker, left this earth and is now hopefully sharing nearly a century of wisdom with leaders in a domain other than the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.

On November 19th, Dr. Peter Ferdinand Drucker would have been 96 years old.

Former Intel Corp. Chairman Andy Grove said:

His ability to explain his principles in plain language helped them resonate with ordinary managers.

Consequently, simple statements from him have influenced untold numbers of daily actions.

They did mine over decades.

Today, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said:

He is purely and simply the most important developer of effective management and of effective public policy in the 20th century.

In the more than 30 years that I've studied him, talked with him and learned from him, he has been invaluable and irreplaceable.

Another "quality" guy, Harry C. Edwards said:

No single person has influenced the course of business in the 20th century as much as Peter Drucker. He practically invented management as a discipline in the 1950s, elevating it from an ignored, even despised, profession into a necessary institution that 'reflects the basic spirit of the modern age.'

Peter Ferdinand Drucker was born in Vienna, Austria. He was educated in both Austria and England. While working as a newspaper reporter in Frankfurt, Germany, he received a doctorate in international law.

Banned by the Nazi regime for one of his essays, he was forced to leave Germany.

From 1933 until 1937 he worked as an economist for a bank in London.

In 1937, he moved to the United States.

The End of Economic Man was the first book he published. It was 1939. Since then, he wrote 34 more books.

In 1943, he became a naturalized citizen of America.

From 1950 to 1971, Dr. Drucker taught at New York University as Professor of Management. He also taught politics and philosophy at Bennington College in Vermont.

Claremont Graduate University became his home from 1971 to his death.

For over thirty years he served as the Clarke Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont.

Beginning in 1971, he taught a course for midcareer executives.

The university named its business school after him in 1987.

In 1979, he penned his autobiography which he called "Adventures of a Bystander."

From 1975 to 1995, he was a regular columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

Drucker studied both employees in the workplace, as well as management in the service sector.

He founded the New York-based Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management which became the Leader to Leader Institute in 2003.

The mission of the Leader to Leader Institute is 'to strengthen the leadership of the social sector.'

Throughout his life, he contributed essays and articles regularly to numerous esteemed publications, including the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Economist.

Mr. Drucker is equally known for having authored more than thirty books.

A few of his most popular include:

Adventures of a Bystander

Concept of the Corporation (1946) - an 18-month study on General Motors

Drucker on Asia: A Dialogue Between Peter Drucker and Isao Nakauchi

Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles

The Age of Discontinuity: Guidelines to Our Changing Society (1969)

The Effective Executive (Revised - 2002)

The Practice of Management (1954)

Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New 'Post-Modern' World

Leading in a Time of Change:: What it Will Take to Lead Tomorrow - A Conversation with Drucker and Peter M. Senge

Management Challenges for the 21st Century (1999)

Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1993)

Managing for Results: Economic Tasks and Risk-taking Decisions

Managing for the Future: The 1990s and Beyond

Managing in a Time of Great Change

Managing in the Next Society (2002)

Managing in Turbulent Times (1980)

Managing the Non-Profit Organization: Principles and Practices

Peter Drucker on the Profession of Management

Post-Capitalist Society

The Drucker Foundation Self-Assessment Tool: Participant Workbook

Meeting the Collaboration Challenge Workbook: Developing Strategic Alliances Between Nonprofit Organizations and Businesses (2002)

From 1990 through 2002, Dr. Drucker served as the Honorary Chairman of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, now the Leader to Leader Institute.

On July 9, 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush awarded Dr. Drucker the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

From December 29th, 2002 through January 3rd, 2003, a documentary series about Peter Drucker's life and work appeared on CNBC ten times.

In October 2004, together with Joseph A. Maciariello, Drucker published The Daily Drucker : 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done.

Drucker is survived by his wife, Doris, and four children.

Thank you Dr. Drucker for your insight and motivation 366 days a year.

Inspire & Be Inspired.

Here's to healthy, adventuresome, soulful, "always thinking outside the box" living!

~ Jennifer Carolyn King, Rugged Elegance, LLC