Harold P. “Dusty” Rodes
President 1960-1976
Guy R. Cowing, the General Motors Institute Board of Regents decided to fill the GMI presidency through a nationwide search outside of the Institute and of equal importance, outside industry. 他们选择的人是Dr. Harold Potter Rodes. Dr. Rodes had considerable experience and a broad background in teaching and educational administration at other engineering colleges.
Guy R. Cowing, the General Motors Institute Board of Regents decided to fill the GMI presidency through a nationwide search outside of the Institute and of equal importance, outside industry.
他们选中的人是哈罗德·波特·罗兹. Dr. Rodes had considerable experience and a broad background in teaching and educational administration at other engineering colleges. When Dr. 罗德斯于1960年接受了GMI的任命, 他是皮奥里亚布拉德利大学的校长, Illinois. The hallmark of his tenure at Bradley included nurturing a close relationship with local business and industry. As local residents began to realize the value of his educational philosophy, the rapid increase in enrollment necessitated the addition of one new building for five of the six years he was there.
Dr. 罗德于1919年出生在莫尔斯敦, New Jersey, 1941年以最优等成绩毕业于达特茅斯学院. 在达特茅斯大学的最后一年, 罗德斯遇到了他未来的妻子, Edith Wilde, whom he says, “我是在南河唱男低音的时候认识她的, New Jersey Methodist Church Choir sat conveniently near each other. 我们在合唱团练习后第一次约会.” Eventually, the Rodes had five children including one set of twins.
After a year of high school teaching in Bradford, Vermont, he went on active duty with the U.S. 海军陆战队中尉. He served in an engineering battalion in this country and in the Pacific area until 1943. 在他从太平洋战区回来之后, Rodes was assigned as an aircraft drafting instructor at San Diego (1943-1944) and later as a mechanical engineering lecturer and assistant supervisor at the University of California, 伯克利(1944 - 1945). It was during this time that he began graduate studies in engineering and education at University of California.
从1945年到1948年. 罗德斯是耶鲁大学的助教, serving also as Assistant Director of Student Personnel at nearby New Haven Junior College. He received a Master’s Degree from Yale in Educational Administration in 1946 and his Ph.D. in 1948. 从1948年到1951年. Rodes was an Assistant Professor of Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Three years later, in 1951, he was offered his first full-time administrative appointment. He was called to become President of the Ohio College of Applied Science in Cincinnati, a two-year technical institution utilizing the cooperative plan of education.
In 1954, Dr. Rodes was offered the presidency of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Thus, at age 34, he was the youngest college president in the United States. The appointment was, no doubt, an expression of confidence in his experience and potential leadership so important to Bradley at the time.
Initially functioning in the capacity of a trouble shooter (the school was in academic eclipse, 部分原因是篮球丑闻), he was successful in restoring the college to the good graces of academe. 罗兹认识到, 作为一所城市大学, Bradley’s major support must come from business and industry - he provided leadership in gearing the programs to their needs, 尤其是在工程和商业管理方面. 在他的领导下, enrollment rapidly expanded making necessary a major campus expansion program, 包括学术建筑, 宿舍和校园中心.
Dr. Rodes thus came to the presidency of GMI from a solid academic background which included the following: college teaching experience that would enable him to understand faculty problems and points of view, 一些工业联系人, experience in operating a cooperative educational program and demonstrated success as a college administrator. 他在弗林特的工作始于1960年8月.
When Dr. 罗德斯来到了校园, the Institute had six educational programs and two distinct educational activities:
- The full-time education of young men (the first woman student enrolled in 1965), who had the potential to assume positions of major responsibility in the engineering and administrative operations of a manufacturing organization.
- The part-time education and training of corporation employees to aid them in preparing for greater responsibility and professional advancement in management and technology.
GMI的五年制工程课程在几个方面是独一无二的. 所有参加该项目的学生都参加了五年的合作学习. The program aimed to equip well-qualified and highly motivated young men with a sound professional education in either industrial, 机械或电气工程.
High on Dr. 罗兹总统任期内的首要任务是获得认可, 首先是机构,然后是课程. Each proved to be a struggle because of GMI’s relationship with a single industry, General Motors and a mission statement to provide programs that were different, better and less expensive than could be obtained elsewhere – elements that trained the minds of the visitation team members.
Throughout Dr. Rodes’ tenure, continued careful and studied changes were designed to enhance and enrich the professional engineering and management educational opportunities offered by the college to better meet the needs of the Corporation that it served.
In 1963, 该学院获得了哈塞尔布林以前的地产, 占地34英亩,位于第三大道以南. It allowed for the construction of the Campus Center and Men’s Residence Hall, 后来改名为弗朗西丝·威尔逊·汤普森宿舍. Soon after, a modern parking deck south of the residence hall was added.
随着校园的发展,课程也在不断更新. 淘汰了53门过时的课程,增加了70门课程. 学士/硕士课程大大扩展.
Dr. Rodes increased the number of women and minority students enrolled on campus. GMI admitted its first black student in 1963 and first woman student in 1965.
In May 1969, the campus hosted dedication ceremonies for the Campus Center and the Alumni Carillion in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the founding of GMI. GMI fell on tough times in the 1970s during the automotive recession. In 1974, GMI was ordered by GM to lay off approximately one third of the faculty and staff and cut the student body to roughly 1,000 students.
他在GMI的最后一个正式工作日是6月30日, 1976, 但他在10月1日之前一直担任名誉主席, 1976.
He and his wife, Edith, traveled and spent winters in Florida and summers in Northern Michigan. 11月11日,他在女儿弗林特的家中意外去世. 29, 1993.