Former President of the American Arbitration Association. From the obituary in the Greenwich Time:
Robert Coulson, an international leader in the field of arbitration and dispute resolution, died on September 9, 2017, in Stamford Hospital, Connecticut, following a stroke. He was 93 and lived in Riverside for 40 years. He was president and CEO of the American Arbitration Association for two decades, and a tireless advocate for more efficient and equitable alternatives to litigation.
“Almost any human activity is more profitable than worrying a dreary lawsuit through the courts,” he wrote in How to Stay Out of Court in 1968. “More often than not, some better method for resolution can be found.”
He was born in New Rochelle, New York, to Abby Stewart Coulson and Robert Earl Coulson. He graduated from Phillips Academy, Andover, in 1943, Yale University 1950, and Harvard Law School 1953. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II in the Harbor Craft Company in England.
After law school, he practiced law in Boston and New York before joining the American Arbitration Association. At the AAA, he helped to expand the use of ADR in America and promoted arbitration through the International Council on Commercial Arbitration.
MM
Bob Coulson was very active in the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Dispute Resolution, and helped to transform it into the Section on Dispute Resolution. It was his proposal that lead to the creation of the “Joint Committee” to draft standards on conduct for mediators. He was a giant in the field.