| Arthur B. VanGundy | |
| Birth Name: | Arthur Boice VanGundy Jr. |
| Birth Date: | 24 May 1946 |
| Birth Place: | Lancaster, Ohio, US |
| Death Place: | Norman, Oklahoma, US |
| Field: | Marketing, Communication, Creativity |
| Work Institution: | University of Oklahoma |
| Alma Mater: | Ohio State University |
| Known For: | Creative problem-solving, Creativity techniques |
| Spouse: | Denilyn Wilson VanGundy |
Arthur Boice "Andy" VanGundy Jr. (May 24, 1946 – May 5, 2009) was a US communication professor, conference speaker, author and internationally noted expert on idea-generation techniques.
Arthur B. VanGundy Jr. was born May 24, 1946, in Lancaster, Ohio, to Dr. Arthur Boice and Sarajane ("Sally") Miesse VanGundy as the eldest of four boys. He graduated from high school in Lancaster in 1964 and earned a B.A. in Psychology from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1968, a M.S. in Personnel Counseling from Miami University (Ohio) in 1970, and a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration from Ohio State University in 1975; during this time he worked as an Organizational development consultant for the US Air Force. In 1976, he moved to Norman, Oklahoma, as Assistant Professor of Human relationships at the University of Oklahoma. He became an Associate Professor in 1982 and Full Professor in 1987, after moving to the Department of Communication, where he worked until his retirement in May 2008.[1]
While at the Ohio State University, he married Denilyn Wilson, who moved with him to Norman. The couple had two daughters, Sarah and Laura. The marriage was later divorced in 1988.
VanGundy contributed more than 16 books and numerous book chapters and magazine articles in magazines like Business Week, U.S. News & World Report, and The New York Times. His book "Techniques of structured problem solving" is considered by many as "the bible of problem solving techniques".[2] He wrote the creativity training program for the American Management Association (AMA) and the creativity chapter for the American Marketing Association’s (AMA) Marketing Encyclopedia. He performed research specifically in the area of the creative person and the creative climate.[3]
His tools and techniques expertise span from performing research on ideation performance [4] to the design of numerous new creative problem solving formats and strategies, such as the PICL-list, Word Diamond, Fresh Eye, Object Stimulation, Try to become the problem, and Air Cliché/Haikugami,[5] [6] including both purely intuitive techniques and highly structured formats.
He served on the board of directors for the annual North American creativity conference CPSI and the Creative Education Foundation (CEF). Also he was the editor of CPSI/CEF’s Creativity in Action newsletter[7] and a member of the Academy of Management.