Dr. Coulter: A Man of Many Interests
By Nicole Holdmeier

Whenever you think of marketing research at Southwest Missouri State University, one professor comes to mind -- Dr. Ron Coulter. He currently teaches Marketing Research, Advanced Marketing Research, and graduate level Marketing Research Seminar.

Neither marketing nor research has always been Dr. Coulter’s passion however. In fact, his path has been filled with many opportunistic “detours.” His undergraduate degree was in Geology and Geography because he thought he was interested in going into oil exploration, the hot field of the day. He chose to also major in education because his home state of Illinois was experiencing a shortage in teachers and was offering scholarships to education majors—whether they ended up teaching or not.

However, all these plans began to change after being involved in his residence hall council as an undergraduate. He enjoyed the RA experience so much, he decided to go on to graduate school for a Masters in guidance and counseling so he could continue his work with residential life on a college campus.

Marriage soon followed. The Coulters, Ron and Mary, then moved to Springfield where he had accepted a position as residence counselor at Drury. This eventually would lead to a stint as Dean of Men and he also worked part-time with Career Services.

But he still wasn’t finished with school. Soon he would again head back to graduate school to get his MBA and PhD—this time in business education at University of Arkansas. Dr. Coulter became interested in business because of the work Mary was doing. She was studying management so he decided to take a couple of management classes too. He liked them so much, his path took yet another direction as he switched his emphasis to business.

Then it was on to Southwest Missouri State in 1983. Both Ron and Mary interviewed at SMSU over Christmas, the semester before they finished their PhD’s. Both received jobs in what was then the Marketing/Management Department.

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So how did the man who got an education degree without ever planning to teach end up doing just that? Coulter believes he got into teaching because of the good instructors he had in high school. He hopes to have that same influence on his own students. He says, “The favorite part of my job is when I have kids in MKT 360 (Marketing Research) that become interested in [the field], switch their majors, and choose marketing research for their careers.”

His current graduate assistant, Sarah Bowler concurs. “Dr. Coulter’s MKT 360 class opened my eyes to the amount of opportunities in Marketing Research. He makes the research classes motivating because he teaches using real world examples.”

Another former student, Kati LaBeaume, currently works toward her Masters of Science in Marketing Research at Depaul University in Chicago. She says, “Dr. Coulter has helped his marketing research students get ahead after graduation because he teaches more advanced marketing research concepts than other schools. I am currently ahead of many students in my program because of what I learned from Dr. Coulter.”

But school’s not the only thing that occupies Dr. Coulter’s time. He has many interests outside of SMSU. He likes to stream fish for trout and small bass and also canoe. Additionally, he collects 30-40 year old model train sets. He owns several rare ones. A couple of his favorite engines are his limited edition brass engines made in Japan and Korea.

His pride and joy, however, is his family. The Coulter’s, have two daughters--one who is majoring in business at SMSU and another, a junior in high school, who will also likely be a business major in college.

Dr. Coulter’s plans for the future include retirement in seven to ten years after his daughters are finished with school. He and Mary hope to do more traveling and take more cruises then. They recently bought a lake house and are spending weekends fixing it up.

So don’t think the professor who didn’t plan to be in teaching or in business, will be deterred when students come into his classes to “just” fulfill their research requirements. He knows circumstances change and passions ignite even when you least expect it. So watch out. You, too, might get bit by the research bug.

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