Prof. Bruce Bubacz, Curators’ Teaching Professor of Philosophy and Law, joined the faculty in 1973 and served as Founding Director of the College Honors Program, the precursor to the Honors College, from 1979 until 1985. He chaired the Philosophy Department from 1987 until 2000 and served as Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences between 2000 and 2002. From 2004-2005 he served as chair of the Mathematics and Statistics Department. From 2005-2007 he served as Provost and Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs.
Dr. Bubacz presented the Ethics Block for the US Army’s Personnel Management for Executives Program (PME). PME is the capstone course for the Army’s Leadership Development Program administered by the Army Management Staff College. In addition to PME he also developed and presented the ethics-training component for the National Weather Service’s Executive Leadership Seminar. Dr. Bubacz is a frequent speaker for business, government and professional organizations.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Bubacz attended public schools before enrolling at Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin. He graduated from Ripon with an honors BA in philosophy and earned an MA and PhD at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Currently, Dr. Bubacz’s interest is in free speech theory and in philosophy as a guide for living. Every Spring semester he directs a seminar in Philosophy and Law at the UMKC School of Law.
In 1998 the Board of Curators of the University of Missouri named Dr. Bubacz a University of Missouri Distinguished Professor. He was the first faculty member to be so honored at UMKC.