Only 15 individuals have had the privilege and responsibility of serving as APhA’s chief executive officer during the association’s 174-year history. John F. “Jack” Schlegel, PharmD, who served from 1984 to 1989, brought to that role a willingness to lead boldly during a period of profound change. Even before coming to APhA, Schlegel was making a significant mark on the profession of pharmacy.
In 1978, while serving with the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, Schlegel worked closely with longtime APhA staff member Sam Kalman to establish Standards of Practice addressing pharmacy management, prescription processing, patient care, and the education of health professionals and patients. As I read about that work in 150 Years of Caring, I was struck by its relevance today. In 2026, we are experiencing another seismic shift as the profession moves toward Standards of Care models of regulation and practice. Once again, pharmacists are being called upon to rethink how we care for our patients.
Schlegel also led APhA through a consequential period of change in the relationship between the association and the pharmaceutical sciences community. At the time, many scientists believed APhA was not adequately meeting their needs. In 1985, pharmaceutical scientists voted to form a separate organization, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists. Schlegel remained steadfast in his conviction that pharmaceutical scientists would always be a welcome and vital part of APhA. Under his leadership, the board renamed APhA’s Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences as the Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science, distinguishing it from the newly created organization while reaffirming the importance of science within APhA.
The academy structure developed during Schlegel’s tenure served the association for decades. It remained in place until 2025, when APhA members approved a bylaws change reorganizing the association’s membership into five categories and nearly two dozen communities of interest. Schlegel’s legacy can therefore be seen not only in the decisions he made during his tenure, but also in the structures that continued to serve APhA long after his time as CEO.
Leading an organization through tumultuous change requires courage, judgment, and a willingness to take bold action. Schlegel demonstrated all three. During his tenure, APhA established its Political Action Committee, known today as APhA–PAC, and hired the association’s first lobbyist. These decisions strengthened pharmacy’s voice in the public policy arena and demonstrated Schlegel’s belief that the profession needed to be an active and influential participant in shaping its future.
After leaving APhA, Schlegel became an expert in association management. He led other associations, authored a book on effective association committee engagement that remains in print through the American Society of Association Executives, and advised more than 300 professional associations, most of them outside pharmacy, on governance and organizational effectiveness.
In 2023, Tom Menighan, BSPharm, MBA, ScD, former APhA executive vice president and CEO, and I had the opportunity to visit Schlegel and his wife, Priscilla Schlegel, at their home in Sarasota, FL. As we admired his APhA memorabilia and listened to stories from his remarkable career, it was clear that Schlegel retained a special pride in APhA; his alma mater, the University of the Pacific; and his fraternal affiliation with Phi Delta Chi. Despite the breadth of his work with associations across the country, pharmacy remained deeply important to him.
I came to know Schlegel only in the final years of his life, through that memorable visit and through several warm email exchanges. He was exceptionally kind and much of what I know about his leadership comes from APhA’s history and from what others have shared. What I experienced personally was his enduring affection for APhA and his deep commitment to the profession he had served so faithfully.
Every experience in our lives has meaning and purpose, even when, in the moment, the path before us seems difficult. Schlegel led APhA through extraordinarily challenging years. Although he never complained to me about the burdens he carried, he surely understood the pressures that accompany leadership during uncertain times. There must have been moments when the future of both the profession and the association seemed far from assured.
And APhA endured. The profession moved forward. It did so, in part, because leaders like Jack Schlegel were willing to act courageously, make difficult decisions, and remain hopeful about what pharmacy could become.
Today, we face pressures and possibilities of our own. Schlegel’s example reminds us that difficult periods do not define an organization. How its leaders and members respond to them does. His life and leadership call us to press onward with courage, vision, purpose, and hope.
For all of pharmacy.