Fond memories of Michael Schwartz | Along the Way

One day in 2002, the Record-Courier receptionist told me she had a caller on the line who wanted to ask about Michael Schwartz, the former president of Kent State University, so she handed the call over to me.

The caller introduced himself as Sam Ratner, a trustee on the board of Cleveland State University, who wondered if I could tell him anything about Schwartz.

“Well, I know he is your interim president,” I said, “and you should name him your permanent president.”

“What was he like in Kent?” Ratner asked.

“He was terrific,” I said, “and you will not be sorry if you hire him. He will do a good job for you guys.”

The call went on a little longer, but that was the sum of it. I was impressed as well as flattered that a man like Ratner, whose family owned Forest City Enterprises, would undertake due diligence calls so far and wide as with someone like me.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, hoping that former Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste would get the Cleveland State presidency, editorially expressed measured disappointment, but wished the new president well.

President Schwartz quickly won the Cleveland editors over. When he retired in 2009, the Plain Dealer hailed his presidency as transformative for having raised academic standards, for imbuing pride among students and faculty, for adding much-needed new buildings to Cleveland State, and for creating a livelier campus that coincidentally pumped invigorating life into downtown Cleveland.

Today, Cleveland State’s library bears Michael Schwartz’s name.

After Schwartz’s retirement, I tried to mail a small package to him, but I did not have his home address, so I called Cleveland State. A secretary told me she was not authorized to give out Schwartz’s address, but said if I would mail the package to her, she would make sure he got it because he occasionally stopped by the office. Then she added, “Boy, do we ever miss him.” I had heard Schwartz’s successor was different.

Schwartz, who died Jan. 2 at age 86, was an exemplary academician. He was also an unpretentious man, who engaged people easily regardless of their background. Neither stuffy nor defensive, he was a regular guy and seemed to like it when people called him Mike.

Schwartz’s predecessor and mentor at Kent State, Brage Golding, had the aura of a chief executive. Golding, who assumed the Kent State presidency in 1977, settled the place down from the aftershocks of the 1970 shootings followed by the 1977 gymnasium annex issue, a self-inflicted wound.

Golding’s presidency was a critically important success, but his manner left faculty nerves frayed.

Schwartz succeeded Golding in 1982. With his affable personality, he was a healer who restored a sense of community to Kent State. He boosted academic standards and made admission to Kent State no longer automatic.

A good listener and a great schmoozer, Schwartz made decisions at Kent State that reflected insight and wisdom. Today, the Michael Schwartz Administrative Center faces Kent’s Morris Road and Summit Street.

President Schwartz benefited from an unusually sympathetic Ohio governor. Near the conclusion of Schwartz’s Kent State presidency, Celeste traveled to the campus in 1990 to help dedicate the May 4 memorial on Blanket Hill.

That day, the governor apologized on behalf of Ohio to Kent State and to the families whose children were wounded or killed on that horrible day in 1970. Other Kent State initiatives that came to fruition during the Schwartz administration were the Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State Fashion Museum, School of Fashion Design and Athletic Field House.

When Schwartz was Kent State’s provost and later president, I had the occasion to regularly interact with him. His sense of humanity and humor made those occasions memorable. He was a great storyteller.

My wife, Janet, a good conversationalist who hears better than I do, would crack up at Mike’s comments during the times we had the opportunity to socialize with him.

Mike liked baseball. I had heard he had been a skilled infielder as a young man and did some coaching when he and his family lived in Stow. where his children attended public schools. I learned firsthand that he was a talented fly fisherman.

Attorney Leigh Herington, an aspiring politician and an avid fisherman who was determined to make a fisherman out of me even though I lacked the patience, invited me to go on a fishing trip to his remote Canadian camp.

Leigh’s group included Schwartz, who by then had resigned as KSU president and returned to teaching. It was an adventure of several days during the summer of 1992. With no telephones and no radios, we were cut off from the world.

After that, Mike reciprocated Leigh’s hospitality with an invitation to his fly-fishing retreat in Geauga County. There, Mike demonstrated experience and skill, repeatedly casting successfully into a headwind. Leigh was able to emulate Mike’s example. My cast kept blowing back in my face.

Well, those are some of my fond memories of a wonderful man, a great educator and a leader who did so much to make Northeast Ohio and two of its universities better. Many of you, I know, have your own good memories, too.

David E. Dix is a retired publisher of the Record-Courier.

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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Michael Schwartz was great leader for Kent State and Cleveland State