May 2, 2023
On the passing of Louis G. Doering on March 13, 2023
In the cooperative community, we have principles. One of them is the commitment to education about the cooperative business model.
When thinking and talking about cooperative education, a few questions that always surface include:
How did you first learn about cooperative education?
How did you keep growing as a cooperative educator, and how can we encourage and support others? What can you do as a leader in cooperative education? What can we do to support you?
On March 23, 2023, Louis G. Doering, age 78, passed away suddenly after a walk with his wife, Jill Padley. Louie Doering was an exceptional cooperative leader. He served in many other cooperative roles and was recognized in many ways: with NCBA CLUSA International, and the International Cooperative Alliance, as chair of the dotCoop board, and through Cooperative Network (the Minnesota-Wisconsin co-op trade association), which recognized him in 2000 with the Cooperative Builder Award.
Louie was also deeply committed to the Association of Cooperative Educators (ACE). He served on the board of directors, as president, and on many committees: Institute planning, nominations, and others. In 2005, ACE bestowed upon him the Reginald J. Cressman Award, which recognizes an ACE Member who demonstrates outstanding commitment to staff development.
It was through this deep involvement in ACE that, for many of us, Louie Doering played a critical role, and was an important actor in a much larger story.
Brett Fairbairn writes in Prairie Connections and Reflections: The History, Present, and Future of Co-operative Education1:
It was in 1952 that the Cooperative League of the USA invited Canadian participants to a conference at the University of Minnesota in Duluth. This was the first step toward the formation of ACE. Then after meetings in Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa, the Institute was held for the first time outside the United States in 1956, at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.
Following ACE’s first foray into Saskatoon, institutes and schools were held in varying locations in the Midwestern US, and once in Winnipeg, Manitoba, during the years that followed. The next new departure came at the 1964 meeting in Kansas City, Missouri. The participants in Kansas City made a key decision: they would institutionalize co-operative education in a permanent association, and they decided that the founding meeting of this new association would be held in 1965 in Saskatoon. The key figure behind the decision appears to have been Jerry Voorhis, the long-time head of the Cooperative League of the USA, who was at that time nearing the end of his twenty-year term as executive director.
Fairbairn then includes a speech by Jerry Voorhis that provides a clear and inspirational explanation of the value and importance of cooperative education.
ACE was formally founded in Saskatoon in 1965. With members from the Caribbean, Canada, and the USA, ACE was managed by Canadian organizations from its inception until 1994, when it was moved from Ottawa to St. Paul, under the auspices of The Cooperative Foundation.
A very successful ACE Institute was held in St. Paul in 1994, most notable for a large number of local participants. One of those was Louie Doering.
The 1994 ACE Institute was the start of something special: it was so successful that the local cooperative community advocated for the continuation of the institute here, resulting in the formation of New Visions/New Ventures. Louie Doering, William Nelson, and Gail Graham played important roles in its formation. As William recalls, several of the participants who attended the Institute for the first time said “we should keep doing this throughout the year.”
With support and involvement of leaders from Central Purchasing Co-op Services, Twin City Co-ops Federal Credit Union (now known as SPIRE Credit Union), The Cooperative Foundation, CHS Foundation, Seward Food Co-op, Mississippi Market Food Co-op along with many others, New Visions/New Ventures (a later iteration of which is known now as CoMinnesota) grew into a wonderful regular gathering for networking, collaboration and exchange of ideas.
Today, cooperators in Minnesota and beyond are beneficiaries of Louie’s commitment to growing both co-ops and people. When we engage across co-op sectors (including with credit unions), when we consider the whole person in any circumstance, when we reach out to welcome and support the young and emerging cooperators among us, when we strive to unite body, mind, and spirit–and lead with a servant’s heart–we follow the path that Louie laid for us.
And the end of that path?
There is no end; only a new conversation to begin.
In the cooperative spirit: Scott Jax, William Nelson, and Cathy Statz
1 “Prairie Connections and Reflections: The History, Present, and Future of Co-operative Education.” Brett Fairbairn. Co-published in conjunction with The Association of Cooperative Educators. October 1999. Centre for the Study of Co-operatives. The University of Saskatchewan. Page 12