Dr. Robert Taylor was born September 30, 1927 in Grants Pass, Oregon to Harold Taylor and Edith Grace Taylor. He received his B.S. cum laude from the University of Arizona in 1952 and his M.S. in 1953. He served as State Supervisor of Agricultural Education and State Advisor to the Future Farmers of America in the Arizona Department of Education until 1959 when he began work on his doctorate at The Ohio State University, which he completed in 1961 and was subsequently named to the faculty as an Associate Professor. He advanced to full professor three years later.
Dr. Taylor was an internationally recognized scholar and leader in the field of workforce preparation. He founded and served as Executive Director of the National Center for Research in Vocational Education at The Ohio State University from 1965 until he elected early retirement in 1986 to establish a consulting firm with his wife, Dr. Barbara Kline Taylor in Silver City. During his 25-year tenure at Ohio State University, he held professorial appointments in the Colleges of Education and Agriculture, and served as Associate Dean of both colleges from 1974 until his leaving the University in 1986.
Dr. Taylor served as a consultant to a wide variety of groups: educational and business organizations, including state boards and departments of education, universities, research and development agencies and institutions, community colleges, local school districts, private career schools and colleges. He chaired the Council for Educational Research and Development, the organization of national research centers and regional educational laboratories, and was a member of the organizing Board of Directors of the Career College Association. Additionally he has worked with ministries of education and labor in 26 countries to improve education, research and development and programming. He has been a visiting scholar, professor or guest lecturer at 51 universities in the United States and abroad.
Dr. Taylor received a number of awards and recognitions throughout his career. Upon his retirement, the Ohio State University Board of Trustees established the Robert F. Taylor Graduate Fellowship in Vocational-Technical Education. The University of Arizona gave him its Alumni Achievement Award at Commencement in December 1987. In 1997, the Association for Career and Technical Education bestowed upon him its highest award, the prestigious Carl Perkins Humanitarian Award. That same year, the National Association of State Directors of Vocational-technical Education conferred its Distinguished Service Award; previously he had been made an honorary life member of the Association.
Dr. Taylor re-located to New Mexico in 1986 before the Governor appointed him to a four-year term as a member of the Commission on Higher Education in 1987. In 1998 Governor Gary Johnson appointed him to a five-year term as a University Regent at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, one of the West’s premier research universities. It is now nationally and internationally recognized for its science and engineering programs. Dr. Taylor passed away May 28, 2003 at the age of 75.