Freedom to Dream, Courage to Act: The First Nine Decades of C. Jackson Grayson

Jack Grayson, chairman of the American Productivity & Quality Center (APQC), has served as dean of two business schools, head of the US Price Commission (1971), and has been a farmer, a newspaper reporter, and an FBI agent. In 1977 he founded APQC as a private sector, nonprofit organization. Productivity and quality are the backbones of American business, yet few know the origins or the global nature of tools that are commonplace in business today. Freedom to Dream, Courage to Act covers the economic and social history of productivity, process improvement, and the founding of APQC. APQC is a unique institution, and Dr. C. Jackson Grayson is a national treasure. This remarkable history of an exemplary man and single institution documents important historical movements through the lens of Grayson's experiences, his philosophy on freedom, and how that important value relates to history and the importance of productivity to mankind.

A veteran Texas-based journalist, John DeMers is the author of fifty published books on subjects from food and drink, to Texas culture, history, to a popular series of crime novels set in far West Texas. Most recently the author of Cordua: Foods of the Americas, John’s earlier works for Bright Sky Press include Follow the Smoke: 14,783 Miles of Great Texas Barbecue, and the Chef Brett adventures beginning with Marfa Shadows. He lives in Houston and Marfa.