IFMA People In The News: Steve Lockwood & Norman Polsky

The IFMA Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Steven A. Lockwood as the foundation’s new director of academic affairs, replacing the outgoing Charles N. Claar, P.E., CFM, CFMJ. In this role, Lockwood will work to increase the number of educational institutions offering facility management courses, further develop the foundation’s Accredited Degree Program, and magnify the importance of the facility management profession and promote it as a desirable career option.

As director of academic affairs, Lockwood is responsible for providing vision, leadership, and direction in developing, implementing, and sustaining facility management degree programs across the globe. He will also ensure graduate and undergraduate curricula are current and consistent with ADP standards and establish a long-term strategy to position facility management education in the mainstream of business operations.

“It’s my goal and challenge to bring academic programs in line with the realities of the practice of facility management, increase the number of ADP schools, create a plan to introduce FM at the secondary school level, and continue to look to the future and challenge the status quo,” said Lockwood. “I’m passionate about the IFMA Foundation and excited to begin work in this challenging position.”

Lockwood has more than 30 years of facility management experience. He has also contributed several articles to Today’s Facility Manager magazine. He has held leadership roles in several organizations and helped develop facility management programs at Ferris State University, where he served as an assistant professor, and Michigan State University, where he sat on the program development steering committee.

Lockwood has been involved with IFMA since the earliest days of the organization. He has been active within the association as the Minneapolis-St. Paul Chapter president and West Michigan Chapter vice president, in addition to helping develop the West Michigan, Ferris State University and Michigan State University chapters. Lockwood has also served on the IFMA Foundation board of trustees, IFMA FM degree program curricula development committee, IFMA certification development committee, and was an adjunct professor at North Dakota State University.

In other IFMA Foundation news, the facility management community is mourning the loss of longtime supporter Norman Polsky, Hon., FASID, IDEC, IID, who died on Sept. 2, 2010, at the age of 86. Former chairman and founder of Fixtures Furniture in Kansas City, MO, Polsky was largely involved with the IFMA Foundation.

In 1990, Polsky offered to match—dollar for dollar, up to $25,000—any donations received by the foundation. The IFMA Foundation then launched its very first fundraising campaign—the Fixtures Furniture/IFMA Foundation Endowment Challenge—which challenged members to contribute to the foundation.

Over time, this evolved into the IFMA Foundation Fixtures Furniture Endowment which was created with the purpose of supporting research and education. The endowment currently totals more than $350,000.

Polsky is survived by his wife Elaine Broudy Polsky; daughter Karen Kent; son and daughter-in-law Larry and Ellen Polsky; son Steve Polsky and his partner Mark Oliver; and grandchildren.