In Memoriam: Professor Richard H. Shultz, Jr.

LEADx’s Senior Advisor, and one of the truest believers in its mission, has left us.

Professor Richard H. Shultz, Jr., longtime Director of the International Security Studies Program at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, passed away suddenly. His loss is deeply felt across the academic and leadership communities he helped shape, and especially within the LEADx network, where his presence was foundational from the very beginning.

A Foundational Ally to LEADx

From the earliest conversations in 2019, when LEADx was still only an ambitious idea, Professor Shultz believed in it fundamentally. He recognized in the project something rare and necessary: a space dedicated to cultivating leaders with clarity, integrity, and courage.

He helped shape LEADx’s founding vision, traveled to Tbilisi for its inauguration, strengthened every edition that followed, and cared deeply about its growing community. Many within our network have learned directly from his teaching, wisdom, and guidance. Even when he was not physically present, he remained a quiet advocate for the mission we carry forward.

LEADx coins and yearly mementos held a proud place in his history-filled office, a reflection of how personally he regarded this work, its alumni, its faculty, and its purpose.

A Defining Figure in Security Studies

At Fletcher, Professor Shultz helped define what security studies is, not only on campus, but across the broader field. Over more than four decades, he built frameworks, institutions, and generations of practitioners who now carry his influence into governments, universities, corporations, and missions around the world.

His work shaped not only scholarship, but the lives and commitments of those who studied under him.

The Coltrane of Our Mission

LEADx often speaks in jazz when words fall short. In that spirit, Professor Shultz was our John Coltrane, disciplined, foundational, and defining.

Like Coltrane, he shaped the language of his field, carried tradition into new eras, and elevated everyone around him through mastery, rigor, and depth. He made complexity feel clear, purposeful, and alive.

Carrying the Baton Forward

Many of us hold, and will continue to uphold, the baton he placed in our hands, inspired by his enduring example of excellence, courage, and purpose.

As LEADx continues its mission to rethink leadership for a rapidly changing 21st century, we carry that baton forward with gratitude, responsibility, and resolve.

Professor Richard H. Shultz, Jr. will be remembered as a mentor, scholar, ally, and defining presence in the communities he served.