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Stephen R. Covey, author of the bestselling motivational book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," died on Monday at an Idaho hospital from injuries he suffered in a bicycle accident in April, family members said in a statement.
He was 79.
Covey, a former professor at Brigham Young University in Utah, founded an executive training center in Salt Lake City that merged in 1997 with Franklin Quest Co to form FranklinCovey, a leading provider of time-management seminars and publications.
The publicly traded company is perhaps best known for its line of Franklin Planner appointment calendars, which it markets along with books, workshops and other products based on its "Franklin System" of business management and Covey's "7 Habits" principles.
Covey, a Salt Lake City native, earned a master's degree in business administration from Harvard University and a doctorate from Brigham Young.
But it was his
seminal self-help guide to success in business, "The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change," published in
1989, that made Covey a brand name.
He went on to write
several more bestsellers about business management, including
"Principle-Centered Leadership," became a favorite motivational speaker
on the Fortune 100 circuit and served as a personal consultant to
organizations ranging from Procter & Gamble to NASA.
Covey was
recognized in 1996 as one of Time magazine's 25 most influential
Americans, and was named among the world's top 50 business thinkers in
2011 by Thinkers50, a group that compiles that list every other year.
His "7 Habits"
title has sold more than 20 million books in 38 languages worldwide, and
the audio version has sold over 2 million copies, more than any
nonfiction book ever released on tape, according to publisher Simon
& Schuster.
The book spent five
years on the New York Times bestseller list and begat a number of
sequels, including his 2004 title, "The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to
Greatness," and his final work, "The 3rd Alternative," published last
year.
He died at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in
Idaho Falls "due to the residual effects of a bike accident he suffered
this past April," his family said in its statement.
Covey fell off his
bike and suffered severe head injuries requiring hospitalization on
April 19 during a ride near his home in Provo, Utah, according to Provo
police Sergeant Brandon Post.
Covey was
remembered on Monday by colleagues at Utah State University, where he
joined the business school faculty in 2010, as an accomplished scholar
and tireless mentor to students.
"Dr. Covey touched the lives of people around the world
in very personal ways," Utah State President Stan Albrecht said in a
statement. "He was an inspirational leader who was always a powerful
voice for individual integrity, strong character and extreme
trustworthiness in every aspect of life."
In an article published in the business school's
magazine, Covey was described by one of his sons as an informal,
approachable person with a good sense of humor.
"He always treated everybody the same, exactly," Sean Covey
said in the spring 2010 issue of the Huntsman Alumni Magazine. "It
didn't matter if you were the CEO of a Fortune 10 company or the local
barber. You wouldn't have ever known the difference."
In his final hours,
Covey was surrounded "by his loving wife and each one of his children
and their spouses, as we sang him his favorite hymns, just as he always
wanted," the family statement said. YahooNews Read more new about Stephen R.Covey accident
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