William Rockwell Torbert

William R. Torbert, 81; Long Serving Dean at Boston College

William Rockwell "Bill" Torbert died on October 21, 2025, at his home in Boston after a lengthy illness. Torbert was a retired Dean of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, where he served for thirty years. Formerly he served as an Associate Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and at the Southern Methodist University Business School.

Torbert is survived by his wife, Reichi Yeh Torbert, and three sons, Michael, Patrick and Benjamin; his brother, James, and nieces Laura Rahe and Alice Coyle: his former wife and mother of his sons, Jennifer Cassettari; and five grandchildren.

Born in 1944 in Washington DC, son of Ambassador Horace Torbert, he spent much of his early childhood in Madrid and Vienna where he became fluent in Spanish, French and German. Returning to the United States, he attended Phillips Academy Andover and Yale University, from which he graduated magna cum laude. As an undergrad he was vice-chair of the Yale Daily News under David Gergen, won the Yale College American History prize and was an All-Ivy-League soccer player. Torbert went on to post-graduate studies at Yale where he received a PhD in Individual and Organizational Behavior. During his time at Yale, he became close to Chaplain William Sloane Coffin, a lifelong mentor. He was perhaps the preeminent student of organizational development scholar Chris Argyris who would become his dissertation advisor and is credited with introducing him into a new and emerging field that would become the intellectual universe of his twelve books: from his first two in 1972, Being for the Most Part Puppets and Learning from Experience: Toward Consciousness, to his most recently published intellectual autobiography, Numbskull in The Theatre of Inquiry (2021).

Tobert began his career as Associate Director of the Yale Summer High School which brought promising students from all over the United States, including Native Americans, to the Yale campus for a broad, intensive introduction to intellectual life. He then became Executive Director of the Yale Upward Bound Program which focused on students from the inner city of New Haven who displayed aptitude in activities other than academics with the hope of reorienting them toward more traditional success.

Torbert's first faculty position was at the Southern Methodist University Business School (1970-1972) where he was selected Outstanding Professor. He then became an Associate Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for four years (1972-76), followed by two years as founder and director of The Theatre of Inquiry.

In 1978, Torbert accepted the position of Graduate Dean at the Carroll School of Management, Boston College, where he remained for thirty years. In addition to teaching classes, he became the leader of an international community dedicated to "Action-Inquiry" and the study of self-transformation in the process of understanding the world. He authored a dozen books and many professional articles in those fields of study and others. Torbert also served on the Board of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Trillium Asset Management, and other national and international academic organizations which bestowed upon him numerous awards and prizes.

Services for Bill Torbert will be private. A celebration of life will be held at a later date.