Capable, caring leaders, the ones who actually listen to others and make decisions in the overall best interest, are increasingly difficult to find in our increasingly conflicted society.
So I predict the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville will sorely miss the proven leadership and inherent goodness of Chancellor G. David Gearhart and his invaluable wife and right hand, Jane, when he retires on July 31.
He says he's leaving the pressure cooker at age 62 with peace in his heart to invest far more invaluable time and energy in his grandchildren and family.
This good and honorable man has more than earned the peace that passeth all understanding, my friends.
Gearhart announced that he's resigning after seven years of managing sustained achievements and unprecedented growth at the state's flagship university. He'll be heading back, after a sabbatical, to the much less stressful and less public role as a professor.
Since we shared lunch shortly after his appointment as chancellor in 2008, this man has represented exactly the kind of principled, capable, energetic and caring person our university sorely needed in the wake of several tumultuous years fostered by his predecessor.
Gearhart's congenial, calm and thoughtful demeanor, his wit and intelligence, made him the ideal choice for this role, especially since he was fresh, as vice chancellor, from leading the school's wildly successful billion-dollar fundraising Campaign for the 21st Century.
I didn't mention that, did I? A significant part of any chancellor's job is raising the funds necessary to prompt and sustain growth. Gearhart excelled at that responsibility as well, lifting the UA into the upper sphere of America's leading public universities.
It also was predictable to me that any news account of his pending retirement would include references to the publicly hashed (and rehashed and re-rehashed) 2013 budget deficit in the school's Advancement Division.
That regrettable episode in Gearhart's tenure involved unfortunate mistakes made by two former employees that created the $4.2 million budgeting error.
I say former employees, because Gearhart dismissed them from their positions in a compassionate way. A sense of empathy is also part of his nature. He'd recruited the advancement director, and the other employee had faithfully served the school for decades. So he took considerable heat for allowing each time to land on their feet.
Gearhart's also the one who called for not only one, but two, audits of the budgeting mistakes after they were discovered. I also don't recall reading that pertinent fact in his retirement story this week.
Gearhart and his wife were dragged through the muck of media scoldings for months over the budget error. Even the legislature got involved in the name-calling, where wild, unproven accusations were made against Gearhart by dismissed officials with axes to grind. That ordeal alone caused him pain that reached as deep as attempted character assassinations can reach inside any good person.
When that politicized posturing for headlines finally settled, no money was missing or misspent, Gearhart was proven right, and the trustees issued a collective letter of support for Gearhart's chancellorship and for him as an capable, honorable and deeply valued person. Good for them.
All in all, this extended brouhaha stemmed from an unfortunate mistake that was corrected with new safeguards implemented for the future (also under Gearhart's direction).
For most across our state, this man has proved himself and his enormous value to the university time and time again. The record growth in enrollment and sustained record of national prestige he's spearheaded speaks for itself.
Many join me today in recognizing that G. David Gearhart will be recorded for his contributions and achievements among the finest chancellors our primary university has ever had. And perhaps even the very best.
The important public position he's held requires an exceptionally thick skin. Yet Gearhart's engaging demeanor, as one who cares deeply enough to determinedly lift a massive institution of higher education in every possible way, isn't hardened to stinging media and politicized attacks many perceived as grossly excessive and unfair.
Who among us would enjoy that kind of thing?
His reality (and that of most in Arkansas) has been that he's worked hard every day to achieve the truly impressive heights to which, with top administrators, he's helped lift the University of Arkansas since 2008.
Beginning on July 31st, David Gearhart can alter his focus to family and his role as a first-rate professor. Even at that he'll continue to contribute in a different way to his beloved alma mater.
The Board of Trustees will be hard-pressed to find a comparable replacement for Gearhart and all he's meant to the university, not to mention his wife's tireless contributions. One observer once correctly told me that with both Gearharts actively improving the University of Arkansas, we were fortunate to have what amounted to a beneficial "twofer."
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].
Editorial on 01/17/2015