Professor Emeritus Gustafson joined the faculty in 1967. For twenty years, he taught economic principles and theory, focusing upon his interests in public-choice-making and welfare theory. As a Fellow of the American Political Science Association in 1973-74, he was aide in House and Senate offices where he worked on energy legislation and budget process reform.

In 1987, Professor Gustafson became Coleman Foundation Professor in Entrepreneurship. He began to teach courses in entrepreneurship and business in which he has increasingly specialized. He is a member of the Coleman Council for Entrepreneurship Awareness, of the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and serves on the board of Self-Employment in the Arts. He is a former member of the Higher Education Entrepreneurship Advisory Committee to the Kauffman Foundation, and the recipient of the Appel Prize, from the Price/Babson Institute, for bringing the entrepreneurial spirit to academe.

In 2004, Professor Gustafson founded and became Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship in Liberal Education at Beloit (CELEB). He passed the mantle to protege Brian Morello’85 who officially took over as director in 2011.

Gustafson held Fulbright Senior Lectureships at Marmara University, Istanbul (1987–88) and at the Middle-East Technical Institute, Ankara, Turkey (1995-96), and was founder of the Beloit/Turkey Student Exchange Program.