Dear Colleagues and Friends,
It has been a great pleasure to serve the College for the last nearly fourteen years. It has been a tremendous amount of work but it has been a labor of love because I have had the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of many people, be they students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, other administrators, retirees and emeriti. I am so pleased that many of them have taken the time to send me an email or note to let me know that I have made a difference!
Very little a person accomplishes is done alone. I have just returned from a quick trip to Delaware State University, my undergraduate alma mater. This little bitty school with an enrollment equivalent to our business school had only 2,000 students when I attended. I was able to grow, develop, and lead others. The real reason for going back to Delaware State was to see the person who was responsible for my attending Delaware State in the first place – Mr. Robert Al “Jeep” Hunter. Mr. Hunter, now 80 years old, was my mentor and basketball coach when I was a teenager. I was a very hotheaded, difficult, head-strong teenager who thought he knew everything and did not need help from anyone. With nary a word of profanity or ever laying a hand, yardstick, ruler, or ironing cord on me, I learned a great deal about being an athlete, a leader, and a man.
Mr. Hunter is my hero and role model because he worked for 40 years with kids just like me in the inner city. He was a teacher by day and a coach and mentor at the Christian Street YMCA where I got a “scholarship”. On Saturday, Mr. Hunter was the recipient of the Delaware State University Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award. The entire 200 people in the audience rose when his name was called. He remains an incredibly dynamic person and spellbinding speaker. He reminded us of our responsibility to give back, that he wanted no recognition, that he wanted us to pledge to make a difference in other people’s lives. (Me, I made that pledge to myself after I turned 40 and called him and several other people who turned my life around – a Scoutmaster, community center leader, three teachers, two coaches, a pastor, and my mother.)
During my nearly twenty years as an administrator, thirty-three years as a professor, several years in industry, government, and the military, I have always stood on the shoulders of giants. In my most difficult times, I worried that God was not with me because I only saw one set of footprints in the sand. It was then and only then that I realized that He was carrying me! We must not get too proud or too forgetful of where we were and where we have been that we delude ourselves into thinking we accomplished everything by ourselves.
As I look across the campuses at Arizona State, Central Florida, Oakland, and Kent State, I know that people have carried me – some of them people here may have forgotten or never known, like Mrs. “G”, Ms. Arlene Darrah, Dr. Hank Woudenberg, and early on, Dr. Sesnowitz when I got a “C” and wondered if I belonged in Kent State’s doctoral program. A year later with a 3.7 g.p.a. behind me you would have thought I ran the program. However, without the help of these kind and caring people, I don’t know where I would be.
Our desire (Pam and mine) is to remain in the area, take the time for ourselves that we have dedicated to others over the years, enjoy our children and grandchildren, and get out and exercise more. I am very happy as I make the transition but as I tell people at church I am only the second happiest person in my house – Pam is No. 1!☺
I will continue over the next several months to work closely with AACSB International as a member of the Board of Directors and with Beta Gamma Sigma as its president. Having been out of the classroom on a formal basis for the past 17 years or more, I must get my textbooks, prepare for classes, practice with the latest technology, and develop the skills that will allow me to do some online teaching as well. I am excited about going back to the classroom but I know I will have major adjustments to make because our world has changed so rapidly, as have our students and our global environment.
Thanks to each and every faculty member, staff member, alumnus or alumna, donor, colleague, friend, business person, student-athlete, and student for giving me this opportunity at Kent State. Pam and I are so pleased that we were given the chance to come back home. I believe we have both, in our way, made a difference here, touched lives, been positive and encouraging, and most of all been ‘real’ and caring to those around us.
If I look back, I know that we have accomplished a great deal. Under Mr. Yank Heisler’s leadership as dean, it is a great time to look forward. I know that he will kick start the College for our movement to the next level and beyond.
This is truly a great college day at Kent State University!
Cordially,
George
George E. Stevens, Dean Emeritus (I hope) and proud member of DBA Class 1979
