Four leaders selected
to Co-op Hall of Fame

• Pete Crear has been a passionate promoter of cooperative enterprise for more than 40 years. The breadth of his contribution is reflected in the words used to describe him: organizer, statesman, educator, ambassador, advocate, mentor and leader. His skill as an organizer resulted in the establishment of numerous credit unions in many states, including close to 20 in metropolitan Detroit alone, which brought the first stable, non-predatory financial services to the inner city and its mostly minority population.
  
  His statesmanship has been evident throughout his career as he repeatedly demonstrated an ability to read the politics of situations, apply his senses of humor and fairness, and broker compromises that produced solutions. His commitment to education is evident in the major role he played in establishing CUNA’s partnership with the National Endowment of Financial Education, which now brings financial education to nearly 1,000 high schools across the country.
  
  
• Robert “Bob” Kabat is credited with creating a culture of continuing cooperative education within the electric cooperative industry. As director of NRECA’s Management Services Department for 40 years, Kabat put in place the management programs and consulting services that have enabled electric and telephone cooperatives to thrive in a changing utility environment. No single person has been more instrumental in the development of effective governance and management expertise within this cooperative sector. Literally thousands of locally elected directors have benefited from the “institutes” that he established to provide training on the duties and responsibilities of board members.
  
  Still in use today is the unique model he developed, with assistance from the Rural Electric Management Development Council, for evaluating management effectiveness for general managers and CEOs. He developed the Management Internship Program, a six-week university-based training program on all aspect of electric cooperative management that graduates more than 60 students a year and is conducted at the business school of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
  
  
• Charles & Eva Rappaport (deceased) for more than 30 years were tireless volunteers and influential leaders of the New York City and national housing cooperative community. Charles served as president of the Federation of 213s —later the Federation of New York Housing Cooperatives — founded in the 1950s by 100 moderate-income co-ops. Eva served as the organization’s executive director, working as editor, writer, conference coordinator and membership director in their home office.
  
  In a city where a third of all ownership housing is in cooperatives, Charles was a strong advocate and made sure housing cooperatives were heard on issues like asbestos, lead, energy and citywide labor contracts, as well as real estate tax abatements for veterans and senior citizens.
  
  While much of their focus was on New York City, the Rappaports advocacy has been felt throughout the country. Charles directed his attention to the national level, where he led the Federation’s successful campaign to separate 213 premiums from all other Federal Housing Authority insurance funds and create the Cooperative Management Housing Insurance Fund as a true mutual. More than 40 years later, the Fund is still returning patronage dividends to Section 213 cooperative housing corporations.
  
  The Cooperative Hall of Fame was established in 1974 by the National Cooperative Business Association and is now administered by the Cooperative Development Foundation, a national foundation that uses cooperatives to help people improve their lives. The Hall of Fame is housed in the offices of the National Cooperative Business Association in Washington, D.C., and can also be visited on the Web at: www.heroes.coop.

November/December Table of Contents