Ivan L. Preston: 1931-2011 (Obituary‪)‬

Ivan Preston, a world-renowned legal scholar who never attended law school, finally ended his career on March 2, 2011. Even without formal legal training, his work was used in revising part of the Uniform Commercial Code in the 1990s. He was a consumer protection expert and advocate who joined ACCI and attended its conferences starting in the 1960s, before he was an expert. He played an important role in the organization for decades. Ivan was added to the Journal of Consumer Affairs editorial board in 1973, and in 1980 he very nearly became the Journal's editor when his friend, Bob Hermann, stepped down from that role. He likewise was a member, and for four years the director, of the Wisconsin Consumers League. But his research reputation was built on studies of advertising puffery and consumer deception. Ivan was a true academic who profoundly affected the fields involving consumer research, and continued to expand his contributions until the day he died. He officially retired a dozen years earlier, but he continued as a prolific researcher, publishing and presenting work nearly until his last breath. Most academics seem to retire and abandon their professional life, but Ivan continued to frequent academic conferences, attending at least two in the last year of his life. He was inexhaustibly curious and reflective, with a sharply honed sense of right and wrong.