Tributes to Bob Aller '56

A Tribute to Bob Aller by Alan Guskin

Susan Aller
Edmonds, WA
August 15, 2000

Dear Susan:

It is with great sadness that I heard about Bob’s passing away. Bob was such a wonderful, thoughtful and dedicated person.

As you know, I first met Bob during the Antioch presidential search process in January and February 1985. Our relationship grew and intensified over my first two years as President when Bob was Chair of the Board of Trustees. Except for those of us privileged to have known Bob, it is extremely difficult to fathom the immense dedication and love that Bob had for Antioch. His devotion to and work for his alma mater was, in many ways, beyond that of any other alumnus or trustee I have met in my 25 years leading three different universities. From our conversations, I found out that in the year before I came to Antioch he put at risk his own position at his company in order to help save Antioch; and, I believe, he would have continued to do so if a new president was not found.

Bob’s devotion to Antioch was indeed a selfless labor of love, not a personal quest for power or approval. This was best exemplified by his deep involvement in the daily workings of Antioch in the year before I came – something that I believe was necessary – and then his willingness, even joy, to pull back and give me the freedom as the new chief executive to lead the institution. Bob’s support and wise counsel during those very difficult first two years in 1985-1987 proved to be critical to our success in beginning the rebuilding of Antioch College.

I will never forget a telephone conversation that Bob and I had about six months after I arrived at Antioch. He literally thanked me for letting him do his job at Loctite! I was stunned that he was thanking me when my colleagues and I should have been thanking him over and over as a trustee and volunteer – which I believe we did then and which I did again when I saw him this past year in Yellow Springs.

Bob was one of those special humble people who just wanted to do good work. His ego did not need massaging; he devoted himself to others because he felt he could help them.

The last time I saw Bob we hugged each other. His eyes teared up. We didn’t say much to each other. But, I knew that he was immensely proud and pleased that his great love, Antioch College, was doing well. While he would never say it, I think – I hope – he realized that he had played a great part in the rebuilding and revitalization of his beloved alma mater.

I wish you and your family all the best in these difficult times and offer a belated thanks for supporting Bob’s work for Antioch.

I am sorry that I will not be able to attend the memorial on Thursday, but I would be pleased if you choose to read this at the memorial.

Sincerely,

Alan E. Guskin
Distinguished University Professor
University President Emeritus
Antioch University

There is one story about Bob Aller’s dedication to helping Antioch that I should tell or it will be lost to the historic record, for it was an incident within our personal experience of working together for Antioch.

Although previously deeply involved with Antioch, in 1974 I was not a trustee and had no official connection to Antioch, but Bob Aller called and asked if I would co-chair with him, chair of the Board of Trustees, a search committee for a new president. I accepted, and we had several long talks. We agreed that, in the fraught political conditions that existed, we must gain solid confidence in the search process in all quarters so that the new president that was selected could hit the ground running, with broad confidence in the way he was selected and therefore supported.

At the time, I was a management consultant building toward a year’s sabbatical from my work. Bob was a key executive fully engaged in a large corporation, already overextending himself for his alma mater. So I was clearly the one with more control over my time. One idea we developed: at the beginning of the search I would visit every Antioch campus, pre-scheduling separate meetings with administration, faculty and students and then a time of availability in which anyone who wanted to could come and talk to me. The mission: what qualities should the Search Committee be seeking in recommending a new president?

We did it. But after covering the Midwest and East Coast, I was slowed by symptoms that led to immediate open-heart surgery. When I was out of intensive care and recovering, Bob called me in the hospital: what parts of Antioch had I not covered and what was the schedule?

The next thing I heard was that Bob had dropped everything on his business schedule and was on the West Coast, keeping the schedule from Los Angeles to Seattle. And then, for the rest of the search process, he called regularly to keep me informed and talk issues over. And I bet he kept everyone else informed and involved in the same way.

How in the world did his corporation put up with him? All I can think of is that he must have been too valuable there, too, to question.

In many ways Antioch’s vitality today can be traced back quite directly to Bob Aller’s leadership as chairman of its Board of Trustees.

Serving earlier as chairman of the Board’s Finance committee when the institution’s survival was very much in doubt, he calmly, wisely – and successfully – guided the Board through those most difficult years with a few winks, some smiles and a lot of badly twisted arms, for which he was soon forgiven and should be gladly remembered.

Robert L. Aller Co-op Development Fund

Bob Aller viewed Antioch’s Co-op program as an essential ingredient in an Antioch education, and throughout his time on the Board, was committed to strengthening and supporting this unique dimension of an Antioch education. Family and friends of Bob Aller have established the Robert L. Aller Co-op Development Fund in his memory. Some of the uses of this fund will be:

To bring Co-op employers to campus, thereby restoring relationships, gaining some mutual expectations, and rebuilding the notion of “field faculty” that is so critical to the program’s success. In early December, we began this process by bringing two employers to campus for meetings and interaction with students and faculty.

To send some classroom faculty in the field with Co-op faculty, to strengthen the integration between the academic and Co-op programs, and to stimulate classroom faculty to begin to think about utilizing this rich resource in planning course offerings.

To initiate a program of “Ushers” for some of the sustained international Co-op placements. These “Ushers” will take responsibility for student transitions, and will serve as guides, reference and referral for students in international locations. In the late fall we began a pilot for this program with two international sites with frequent student placements.

To create a searchable database of Co-op jobs with a web site for each that will include photos, job summaries, housing information and links to other information. Work on this project began this term.

To create an on-line searchable Co-op survival handbook. Work on this project also began this term.

For more information contact Jane Garrison, Director of Stewardship and Special Giving Programs, at garrison@antioch-college.edu.