Hall of Fame Induction Year
1996
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Inductee Biography
Mr. Ruffner was working as a market researcher in 1954 when he attempted to locate a directory of trade associations. He discovered there wasn’t one. Seeing an opportunity, he quit his job and with his wife, Mary, produced the Encyclopedia of Associations in 1956 and began the Gale Research Co. They soon ditched their $5-a-month office in the Book Tower for bigger quarters in the Penobscot Building. Gale Research grew to 400 employees and published more than 2,000 books, including library reference classics such as “Contemporary Authors” and the “Dictionary of Literary Biography.” “The impact of Gale Research cannot be overestimated in both commerce and library services and science,” said Fred Ciporen, former publisher of Publishers Weekly. “They really started from scratch and really went up against two established companies in the reference industry,” Mr. Ruffner’s son Rick Ruffner said. “Gale — just through the creativity, and energy and innovation — passed them both up.” Frederick Ruffner sold Gale Research in 1985 for $66 million to what was then International Thomson. Gale remains in business today as a Farmington Hills-based brand of Cengage Learning with about 550 employees. In 1985, Mr. Ruffner and his son Peter founded Omnigraphics, a Detroit-based publisher of reference books and materials that are sold to schools and libraries. Frederick Ruffner was brought up in Akron, Ohio, and served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War II, seeing action in the battles of Saipan and Okinawa, for which he received the Bronze Star Medal for Valor and the Combat Infantryman Badge. He graduated from Ohio State University in 1950 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.
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Huizenga College of Business and Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame
Disciplines
Business
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