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Honoring Dr. Schildgen's Legacy
Dr. Thomas Schildgen’s colleagues, industry partners and former students from Arizona State University would like to honor his accomplishments with an endowed scholarship. This scholarship represents decades of inspiration and collaboration in the Graphic Communications and Graphic Information Technology degree programs, and maintaining a working relationship with the print and cross media industry.
Together Dr. Schildgen’s teaching, mentoring and industrial collaboration sets him apart as a leader in his discipline. This scholarship recognizes and continues his legacy at ASU.
Commitment to service
Beyond his work as a professor, Dr. Schildgen was the administrator responsible for the establishment of the ASU Print and Imaging Laboratory. He worked tirelessly with the other GIT faculty to get donations of equipment and supplies. He worked with Dean Albert McHenry to hire Mike Chiricuzio, and shortly thereafter hired Cathy Skoglund, a former student of Dr. Schildgen's, who started her industry career with Mike. Mike and Tom convinced Cathy to take a significant pay cut and be responsible for the day to day operations of the PIL, while Mike worked with industry manufacturers to secure additional equipment. To this day, the efforts of Ms. Skoglund in combination with Mr. Chris Myers' have elevated this academic enterprise into one of the premier university graphic production facilities in the United States, and internationally.
Dr. Schildgen is passionate about community service, and his many years of Board service for the Mesa United Way and the Mesa Rotary has been a role model for student involvement in service learning.
Dr. Schildgen’s leadership experience includes serving as a Past President of the University Senate and Past Chair of the University Academic Council. He is also the past Chairman for the Department of Technology Management at Arizona State University, an administrative position he held for 15 years. He has been a professor of Graphic Information Technology for the last thirty-six years at Arizona State. He served four years on the faculty of Illinois State University prior to joining ASU. Tom served a two-year term as Chair of the Academic Chairs and Directors Council at ASU. He is currently the past president of the University Club Advisory Board, and this was his second Presidential term. He has served on the NAIT Board of Accreditation, and he has just completed his second term as President of the ACCGC Board of Accreditation. Dr. Schildgen is a national and international consultant for educational development, industrial training and the graphic arts industry. He has done work for companies such as Quad Graphics, Treasure Chest Advertising, and Mannington Resilient Floors, The Ohio State University and Purdue University. Dr. Schildgen authored a book entitled Pocket Guide to Color with Digital Applications and has numerous chapters in books, and articles in educational and industry journals. He has coordinated several World Bank funded projects with the Republic of Turkey. He has worked with the U.S. Department of Defense Dependent Schools in Germany, and has hosted an industry tour group of South Korean CEO’s. He had supervised many student interns at the CIA and McDonnel Douglas. He has many different funded grants or sponsored projects. Schildgen has been involved in a curriculum for pollution prevention for the printing industry with the EPA. He was inducted into the Soderstrom Society and the Golden Cylinder Society which represent national leadership in the graphics industry. Dr. Schildgen’s current research agenda focuses on Electron Microscopy for quality control of new developmental diodes used in printing new sources of illumination to replace the Edison bulb and mercury fluorescent tubes.
