Alan Hogenauer was an extraordinary man who lived an extraordinary life. His zest for new experiences led him to travel to all corners of the globe and to his being named one of the most-traveled people in the world. He had a smile and personality that could light up a room and was beloved as an associate professor of marketing and business law at LMU’s College of Business Administration. Alan’s untimely death at 71 years old occurred on June 29 while hiking in the Coachella Valley Preserve. Even at his passing, he was enjoying the beauty and ruggedness of nature that he so adored.
In travel and tourism circles, Alan was a “celebrity”. He had been featured in many print and national TV placements for his renowned travels, often emphasizing that travel itself is an educational experience. He had accumulated more than 2.2 million air miles, visited all seven continents, 311 countries and territories, and each of the official 401 National Park Service sites, recently visiting the last five sites added under the Obama administration. He had worked in 59 countries, and been to every state in the nation at least 10 times. In the 1980s, he made the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first person to visit all of the National Park Service sites. It was his worldly wisdom and passion for life that made him such an incredible storyteller and teacher.
Alan first joined LMU in August 2000 to lead the CBA’s Center for Tourism and Travel. He moved to marketing and business law in 2009 and taught courses on global transportation, tourism marketing and systematic travel. In his many years at LMU, Alan was loved and respected by his fellow CBA faculty members, staff and the numerous students whose lives he touched.
“Alan was a man whose formal education – diverse and deep – was strongly complemented by his vast experience in various sectors of the business world, his variety of consultancies to worldwide governments, and his passion for travel and learning,” said Dennis Draper, Dean of LMU’s College of Business Administration. “Every one of us was touched by the richness of his experiences, which he shared with anyone he encountered. He was truly a man of the world and one that made us all better.”
Alan’s most recent research was focused on “systematic travel” – a term he coined to define the understanding of categories or sites that a place or location fits into, and then attempting to reach all of the points in that category. The benefit, according to Alan, is really one of completion (that you haven’t left anything out) and an understanding of the various categories into which things fit.
Alan’s desire to see the world began as a teenager. In 1959, his mother took his siblings and him on a transcontinental rail journey to see the United States. A year later, they took a 50-day bus trip across Europe. He began to tally his trips and categorize the places he visited – cities, countries, borders crossed. “With every place I went to,” he recalled in a 2012 interview with LMU Magazine, “I knew the category that it fit, or I began to learn the category it fit into.”
His fearlessness and determination could occasionally get him into a bind, but more often led to incredible adventures that few have experienced. In 1965, his honeymoon was spent traveling the world in a Land Rover: rambling across Australia, trekking from Mumbai to Edinburg, and crossing oceans on freighters. When given the option, Alan always chose land or sea travel over air travel, as it gave him a greater perspective of the country’s beauty and culture.
Prior to joining the LMU faculty, Alan spent much of his career in market research and aviation, holding several notable positions including air transport economist and team leader for the International Civil Aviation Organization, director of market research for Chiat\Day Advertising and TWA, and a decade as an air transport consultant for the governments of China, Peru, Korea, Thailand and El Salvador.
Alan also served as program chairman at the Graduate School of Management at the New School for Social Research in New York, where he taught courses in travel and tourism marketing, market research and geography of travel and tourism. From 1993 to 2000, he was an associate professor of marketing at Dowling College in Long Island, New York, where he taught both graduate and undergraduate courses in marketing management, marketing research, transportation and tourism marketing.
Alan earned his doctorate in economic/transportation geography at Columbia University in 1975. He also held a master’s degree in philosophy in economic/transportation geography and a second master’s degree in economic geography, both from Columbia. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics in 1962 from Hunter College in the Bronx section of New York, where he grew up.
Alan leaves behind a loving wife and four children. He will be remembered for his unwavering appetite for travel, zany personality and dedication to his students. For those who were lucky to have known Alan, let his life and accomplishments inspire you to see and do things you never thought possible. Nothing would have made him happier.
