Personal Financial Planning

Dr. Bill Gustafson - 2016 Opportunity Days Honoree 

Associate Professor
Texas Tech University

A. William "Bill" Gustafson, Ph.D., served as Senior Director of the Center for Financial Responsibility at Texas Tech University and as a faculty member in the Department of Personal Financial Planning. He has over thirty-six years of involvement with family and personal finance research and education at Texas Tech. He will continue to serve as an emeritus faculty member helping with student recruitment and the Archives for the History of Financial Planning.

Gustafson has B.S. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Economics from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and the Doctor of Philosophy in Family and Consumption Economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was a faculty member at the University of Alabama for four years before moving to Texas Tech in 1978. He served as Program Director of one of the original 20 CFP Board registered programs from its establishment in 1987 until 2001. He has been a member of the Industry/Educator Forum of the International Association for Financial Planning (now Financial Planning Association), the first IBCFP Board (now CFP Board) of Examiners, and the first Board of Directors of the Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education. He served on the Board of Directors of the Academy for Financial Services and then as Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations for a total of nine years. He also served as a member of the board for the New Mexico Project for Financial Literacy and the International Foundation for Retirement Education (www.infre.org) and eight years of service on the Texas Tech Federal Credit Union Board of Directors. He also served as President and Chapter Administrator of the West Texas Chapter of the IAFP. He served as President of the Board of Directors of the National Ranching Heritage Association and as Chairman of the Endowment for the Preservation of Ranching History. He has appeared in over 150 television and radio presentations concerning financial planning topics and industry. He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal Online, The Christian Science Monitor, Baltimore Sun, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio News Express, Dallas Morning News, U.S. News and World Reports, USA Today, Accounting Today, Dow Jones Investment Advisor, and Financial Planning magazine.

He is still involved with his son, Michael, in operating the farms in Illinois that have been in his family for three generations.