Paul Rigby

Following army service in World War II, he received an MBA from The University of Texas in Austin and then served for one year as manager of the Smithville, Texas Chamber of Commerce. He returned to graduate school and received a doctorate in Business Administration and Economics from The University of Texas at Austin. His fields of specialization were statistics, accounting, and economics.

After service as a senior price economist for the Office of Price Stabilization during the Korean War, he accepted a position as a Research Associate and Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Alabama. Two years later he accepted a position as Associate Professor of Economics and Director of the Bureau of Business Research at George State University. For the next six years, he was a Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Business Research at the University of Houston. In 1964 he accepted a position at The Pennsylvania State University after having been on the faculty of the University of Missouri for two years as Director of Business Studies. He retired from Penn State in 1995 as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs and Professor of Business Administration. He continues to teach courses in applied statistics.

His research interests focused on research methodology and the application of economics and statistics to the management of organizations. He teaching has included research methodology, and economic and statistical analysis.

He has been very active in the State College community. For a number of years he worked closely with the Boy Scouts serving as treasurer for Troop 31. He chaired a committee that organized the Center Area Transpiration Authority and served for several years as the Chairman of the Authority. He chaired a committee that organized C-Net that broadcasts on channel 7. For seventeen years he served on the Board of Directors of the Center Community Hospital and was chair during his last three years of service. He has served on Board of directors of the Center for the Performing Arts. He recently completed a second term on the State College Planning commission. Currently he is on the Board of Directors of Centre Stage serving as Treasurer. He is also on the Nittany Valley Symphony Board of Directors and s president of the Nittany Valley Guild Board of Directors. He was recently appointed to the Advisory Board for the Penn State Student Publication, La Vie, to assist with the program’s financial management.