Dr. Elmer F. "Bud" Gookins

Dr. Elmer (Bud) Franklin Gookins, Jr. passed away peacefully at home on Tuesday, January 21, 2014. He was born on December 14, 1940 in Zanesville, Ohio to the late Elmer F. Gookins, Dr. and Augusta (Zandlo) Gookins. He had been in the Army Reserves. He and his wife Sandra are members of St. Thomas Church. He is survived by a loving wife of 45 years, Sandra (Starkey) Gookins, daughter, Kimberly D. (Tony) Ackerman, sons; Jason C. (Veronica Laws) Gookins, Bradley F. (Erin David) Gookins; grandchildren: Ashley Ackerman, Jenna Ackerman, and Chase Gookins; sister, Sharla Rose (Maury) Kenily; nephew Sean Kenily; nieces Audria (Geoff) Feicht and Kristin ( Dan) Shuey, aunt Alice (Whiten) Mauk, Nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. Dr. E.F. (Bud) Gookins was an internationally recognized authority in product safety, liability prevention and product excellence. He was a quality systems and management consulting firm. Since 1965, Bud had developed and implemented quality systems and conducted numerous training programs in quality and management concepts for diverse industries and service organizations. He had held leadership positions such as President and Chief Executive Officer for manufacturing organizations, led corporate quality for Fortune 100 companies and sat on the Board of Directors for several companies. Dr. Gookins lectured and trained well over 20,000 people and published over 50 professional papers on human behavior, organizational development and quality management systems and technologies-both domestically and internationally. Dr. Gookins was a registered professional engineer; certified quality management systems lead auditor and member of the National Society for Professional Engineers. He was a “Fellow,” a past National Officer and was Vice-Chair of the “Product Safety and Liability Prevention Group” of the American Society for Quality (ASQ). He was also on the development committees for the Certified Quality Engineer (CQE) and the Certified Mechanical Inspector (CMI) for ASQ. Bud was the co-founder of the Ohio Award for Excellence Council and Vice-Chair of its Board of Trustees. He has taught courses as an adjunct professor for the business college, as well as the engineering college of several universities for over 39 years; i.e. Cleveland State, Lorain Community College, and Ashland University. In his doctoral studies Bud focused on the impact of human factors on quality and productivity performance and has conducted behavioral research in this field. He is the author of THE TASK PARADIGM. Bud has received many awards and recognition for his work in the quality and management professions, including the international acclaimed EDWARDS MEDAL for outstanding contribution to the quality management movement worldwide, the GRANT MEDAL for his educational pioneering in quality, the ISHIKAWA MEDAL for his work in the humanistic aspects of organizational performance, the HARRY LESSIG MEDAL for his contribution to the inspection and testing technologies, and recently he was awarded and ASQ DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL for his work with ASQ over the years. He is the author of Achieving a Safe and Reliable Product, Quality Press, a contributing author to the Juran’s Quality Control Handbook, 5th edition McGraw-Hill, contributing author to The Product Liability Handbook, Quality Press. He was a member and Vice-Chair of the International TAG’s 69 & 176 for ISO Standards and Chair of the American National Standards Z-1 Committee for statistics in the United States. Family will receive friends on Friday January 24, 2014 from 2-4pm & 6-8pm with a Vigil service at 7:45pm at the Hillis, Combs & Nestor Funeral Home 935 Forest Ave Zanesville, Ohio. A mass of Christian burial will be celebrated 10:30 am Saturday at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church 140 N 5th St. Zanesville, Ohio with Fr. Peter Fagen as celebrant. Burial will conclude at the Zanesville Memorial Park. Memorial contributions may be made to Genesis Hospice and Palliative Care, 703 Forest Ave., Zanesville, Ohio 43701. Online condolences may be made to the family at www.hilliscombsnestor.com.

Dr. Elmer F. "Bud" Gookins

December 14, 1940 - January 21, 2014