‘Lateral thinker’ Edward de Bono dies, aged 88

Edward de Bono, who developed global fame for his thinking methods, died on Wednesday. He was 88.

A doctor and an academic, de Bono held faculty appointments at Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard universities and served as professor at many others.

He was an authority on creative thinking with an interest in the mind and its method of organising information.

He originated the term lateral thinking, which now forms part of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Born in 1933 and educated at St Edward’s College, de Bono graduated as a doctor from the University of Malta before studying physiology and psychology at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and a Phd at Cambridge.

de Bono’s more than 85 books were translated into 46 languages, and his Six Thinking Hats method was taught across continents.  

“Edward de Bono lived an extraordinary life, inspiring, encouraging and enabling us to be better and more creative thinkers,” a post on his website that announced his death read.

de Bono’s funeral will be held in Malta, with a memorial at a later date in the UK.