Scholarly kind

SELF PORTRAIT Date and place of birth:

Nov. 8, 1944, Denton, Texas

Occupation:

Dean of the Honors College and professor of history at the University of Arkansas

Family:

Wife Linda, son David, daughter Angela Leek, four grandchildren

The last great book I read was

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, 1906-1945: Martyr, Thinker, Man of Resistance by Ferdinand Schlingensiepen.

My advice to young professors is

keep your balance - balance between life and work, balance between research and teaching. You are more than what you write.

The thing I can’t bear to throw out is

books.

One place I want to visit is

China.

If I had an extra hour each day, I would

exercise more.

A person I look up to is

my granddad, Robert Ellison.

If I could teach any course, it would be

religion and American politics, from colonial times until now. I’m going to teach that as an honors colloquium next fall.

Something I’d like to know more about is

nanoscience and technology.

When I go for a long walk, I like to listen to

baroque brass music. It keeps a spring in my step and reminds me how much fun playing the trumpet was.

A phrase to sum me up:

“Open to new ideas”FAYETTEVILLE - Bob McMath won’t be writing a book anytime soon.

He’s doing plenty of writing. He’s currently working on a revision of his most well-known book, American Populism: A Social History 1877-1898, and just finished a conference paper on sustainable agriculture. As far as going into the archives and crafting a full-length volume from scratch, though, that’s probably not happening as long as he’s the dean of the Honors College at the University of Arkansas.

“I have some friends that can write a book with one hand, and I can’t do that,” says McMath, the author or co-author of five books. “I can write essays that are interesting to me and not with a huge investment of time.”

To McMath, writing a book is something that can’t be done casually. It takes a focused, sustained push, and he’s far more interested in dedicating his energies to the Honors College, where since 2005 he has shaped the education of the state’s best and brightest, creating innovative new courses and study opportunities.

During his time at the helm, the Honors College increasingly has been able to surround the state of Arkansas with a net of sorts, allowing the UA to retain more of the state’s top students, and attracting ones from other states.

The Honors College currently has more than 2,500 students in all undergraduate majors, and they interact with more than 500 Honors College faculty members.

“He is a motivating factor to students, because he cares so much about them personally,” says UA professor Jennie Popp, who teaches in the Honors College. “He’s a very effective academic leader.

He’salways looking to promote programs that are going to give [students] an edge.”

The Honors College began in 2002, shortly after the UA received a $300 million gift from the family of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

founder Sam Walton. The gift earmarked $200 million for the creation of the college, including an endowment for Honors College Fellowships. (Famed primatologist Jane Goodall will be speaking at Barnhill Arena on Oct. 5 as part of its 10-year anniversarycelebration, an event that is free and open to the public.)

McMath, who took over the reins following a national search that lasted more than two years, says the Honors College would never have been successful without the good will of the faculty - good will he has made it a point to develop.

“He is wonderful to work with,” says UA Provost Sharon Gaber, McMath’s immediate supervisor. “He’s a team player, supportive, and he’s not satisfied in the status quo. He’s always asking, ‘How do we improve our reputation and that of the Honors College?’ and then he pushes, but in a kind and gentle way.”

McMath’s kindly nature is evident within minutes of meeting him, as is his passion for his work. He has been in higher education since 1972, spending more than threedecades at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

He started out as an assistant professor, and although he never set out to do so, he worked his way into administration. He ultimately rose to become Georgia Tech’s vice provost for undergraduate studies and academic affairs.

“He makes institutions better and more humane,” says Steve Usselman, the chair of the history department at Georgia Tech. “Georgia Tech is a place that likes to pride itself on toughness and hardness, and every day Bob found ways to make it a little nicer.”

McMath was already into his 60s by the time he moved to Arkansas. He turns 68 in November, but he has little interest in retiring.

He’s far too excited about the Honors College and its future. In December 2010, he was reappointed to a fiveyear term as dean, running through June 30, 2016.

Next fall, the Honors College achieves a goal McMath has had since the day he first walked onto campus: having a building of its own. The college will move into the renovated Ozark Hall.

McMath is excited about the opportunities the new building will provide. What really has him excited, though, is his work with students - whether it’s teaching them in a classroom or in his office, where he develops unique study opportunities for them.

“It’s not every day, but most days you go home thinking, ‘This is why I’m in this business,’” he says. “I get energy from my colleagues, but the thing that has energized me from day one is students. I could be their grandfather now, but they’re still fun.”

NO TIME TO SPARE

If it was possible for someone to make biology interesting, McMath realized, it was possible to make any subject worth studying.

Born and raised in Denton, Texas, McMath was a disinterested student for much of his childhood. That changed when he was a sophomore in high school, and an enthusiastic teacher made biology seems like the most fascinating thing in the world.

The teacher’s enthusiasm spread to McMath, and it quickly developed for other subjects. From that point forward, he dedicated himself to his schoolwork.

“It was really a case of being interested in one subject, and that worked its way into the rest of my academics,” McMath says. “From there on I had no difficulties and I enjoyed school. It took somebody getting me by the scruff of my neck.”

McMath’s father was a high school band teacher, and so Bob grew up playing the trumpet. He was a lot more successful at it than he was in sports, proudly noting that he was an All-State trumpet player in high school.

Although he did suit up a couple times in the Georgia Tech pep band, he doesn’t play the trumpet anymore. It’s a small regret, albeit one that’s a necessity. He’s not interested in reducing his workload, so in order to get his chops back, he’d have to cut back on time with his family; his two children live in Fayetteville, as do all four of his grandchildren, ages 2-8.

“He’s always loved to readto [the family’s children],” says his wife of 45 years, Linda. “When our kids were growing up, he was always tagging along after them, being involved in their schools, and cheering them on in all the stuff they were involved in.”

Since he’s not cutting back on family time to play trumpet, another option would be to ease up on his involvement with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Raised a Southern Baptist, he has been a member of St. Paul’s since shortly after moving to Fayetteville, and is working with a hunger outreach initiative.

“That’s something that’s always been important to him,” Linda says. “At one point before we were married, he even considered going into the ministry.”

The other option for Mc-Math is to exercise less. He got into running about 15 years ago - running the Atlanta Marathon in 2000 - and today he’s big into walking, as well as weekly Pilates classes. He needs those classes, though, because they keep him from being “stiff as a board.”

So trumpet playing is out.There’s just not time for it.

“I’ve always been self-motivated,” he says. “Everybody in my family was always pretty busy doing stuff, so there wasn’t much choice.”

CREATING NEW PATHS

When McMath left for Arkansas, it wasn’t easy for Georgia Tech to replace him.

“Within a year and a half, his job was being done by five people!” Usselman says.

True to form, McMath downplays this statistic - although he does not outright deny it - pointing out that when Georgia Tech created his position, there was no way of telling what it would entail.

Still, there’s no denying that his time at Georgia Tech was eventful. As vice provost, he coordinated a conversion to the semester system, promoted teaching with technology, and continually worked to enhance the undergraduate experience.

That meant getting the ball rolling on the construction of the G. Wayne Clough Undergraduate Learning Commons. Clough, Georgia Tech’s former president,says McMath was “perfect” for his vice provost role, and his work in the position left a deep impression on Georgia Tech.

Clough notes that Mc-Math’s work led to a tenfold increase in the percentage of Georgia Tech students who studied abroad during their time at the school, and a sizable increase in the percentage of undergraduate students who earned a diploma from the school.

“He put in all these programs that energized undergraduate research,” Clough says. “The idea was to enrich the undergraduate experience beyond just the traditional classroom. Bob is really good with the nontraditional.”

McMath’s innovative leadership can be seen in the interdisciplinary courses he built at Georgia Tech, and the ones he has constructedin the Honors College.

When McMath arrived at Arkansas, he decided the most important thing he could do was listen. He spent six months walking around campus, seeking the input of everyone who would give him time - but in particular,talking to senior faculty who were doing research.

He kept the questioning simple, merely asking them to tell him about their work.

“People would tell me about projects that crossed disciplinary lines, like the classicist working with an architect to reconstruct ancient cities,” he recalls. “Their eyes lit up when they talked about these projects. So I said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you guys could develop courses around a topic, team-taught by an interdisciplinary team?”

The Honors College invested money to develop around a dozen interdisciplinary courses, and it has steadily grown. The university now has a large study abroad program in Belize, as well as a minor in sustainability - two new developments in a long list that have occurred under McMath.

“These help students think outside the box, solve problems we haven’t found yet,” Popp says. “It’s important for shaping the leaders of tomorrow.”

FUTURE PLANS

When Caitlin Williamsgraduated from Conway High School with a 4.0 grade-point average, she could have gone to plenty of excellent colleges. The Honors College, and the scholarships she was offered, made her decide to stay in state.

Williams says what made the biggest impact on her were the research opportunities available, and the involvement she had with people like McMath. When she was finishing her studies at Arkansas, he invited her to lunch to talk about her plans for the future, and then wrote letters of recommendation on her behalf.

“It was so gracious for someone as busy as him [to do that],” says Williams, today a graduate student at Catholic University. “His interest in students seemed so genuine.”

Williams took one of Mc-Math’s courses. What stood out about it was his emphasis on participation, the way he drew even reluctant students into the conversation.

“Dr. McMath is very passionate about what he does,” Williams says. “You can tell he just loves the subject. He would bring in books all the time, and you could tell just from the way he was holding it - it was almost affectionate - that he loved it.”

For most of his life, Mc-Math has been intensely curious about history, particularly social movements. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from North Texas State University (today the University of North Texas),and while he was there, he watched in fascination as the civil rights movement unfolded around the South.

The movement was led, in part, by preachers. Then Mc-Math read in history books about grassroots movements, a few generations earlier, in the same region of the country that also “had a very strong evangelical flavor to them.”

“The question I began to think about then was one I’ve thought about ever since: How is it that people who are seemingly not organized try to affect change? How do you get a critical mass there?” he says.

After spending a year in the Army - McMath was drafted, but an injury kept from being sent to Vietnam - he earned his doctorate from the University of North Carolina in 1972, and took a position at Georgia Tech. His scholarly works focused on U.S. history, in particular the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a period of major upheavals in agriculture and industrialization.

Populism continues to fascinate McMath, and he is happy to discuss it at length. But the movements he has studied, as big as they were, will stay in his rearview mirror for the foreseeable future.While he misses writing books, he’s having too much fun with the challenge of helping the Honors College grow in its second decade.

“He’s a very friendly man who could kill you with kindness,” Popp says. “He’s very determined, but always engages in a very respectful way. That endears people to him as a leader.”