Peacock stepping down

[moehler]

I stand by my statement, based on everything that has been accomplished during his tenure, and his obvious love for App, I think he is the best Chancellor I have seen at App. If you dont agree....who the @#$@ cares?

[fjblair]

He has been wonderful for ASU. Truly an irreplaceable asset and advocate. It is an incredibly difficult job and he has given his all.

[asu66]

This is not the news I wanted to see on a soggy Friday afternoon. I'm not surprised, as the unending and ungodly pressure of the chancellor's office and schedule isn't doing anything good for KP's heart issues. I wish him nothing but the best. He will leave some big shoes to fill when that day comes. Hopefully that's at least a year down the road.

In my opinion this will be reason enough for Charlie to step up his search for a new AD's position. It's really, really, really difficult for an AD to work for a Chancellor who didn't hire him. It almost never works.

[Saint3333]

I hope we hire an athletic friendly Chancellor, the last thing we need is a chancellor that doesn't understand the importance of athletics.

Also need one to continue the push to get App a professional degree.

[moehler]

I agree that we must hire someone who shares the same views concerning athletics that Peacock does. We dont need to look any further than JMU, just a couple of years ago they had a chancellor who was very pro active concerning athletics. Fast forward to present, they now have a new chancellor who appears to have a differnt perspective towards athletics, and they seem to be moving away from it. To much effort and money has been put towards athletics the last 9 years, we need to make sure we hire someone who understands that.

[JCline0429]

Peacock was the greatest Chancellor App has ever had, the man truly loved App and refused to "bow down" to UNC Chapell Hill, he really believed App was the greatest University in North Carolina. The greatest compliment I can give him, was this quick story; I have a friend who graduated from Chapel Hill, big, big fan, anyway, he was at an App game, the first year of Peacock, and sat there watching Peacock firing up the crowd, shaking hands, and having a great time. My friend turn to me, said that was one of the coolest things he had ever seen a Chancellor do, and he wished the Chancellor at UNC interacted with the fans like Peacock does. Whoever the next chancellor is, he is going to have a hard time living up to the standards Peacock set.

He has been great, that's for sure. But to say he has been the best is not fair to some of the ones in the past who are partly responsinle for where we are today.

It is always easy to think the best of the latest. Most top ten lists have that problem. So my question, if not Peacock, whom would get your vote for as the best?

I don't pretend to know exactly who was best because each Principal (when it was Watauga Academy), President, and Chancellor have contributed great things for our alma mater. Plus, I don't have such a grandiose conception of myself to claim to know who exactly was "THE best".
Any discussion on the topic would have to include the founder (in effect), DD Dougherty (and his brother). Arguably, without him or them, there would be no Appalachian State University today. The two brothers, if I recall my history acccurately, were the ones who obtained the land donation needed to build a fledgeling teachers' training institution (previously Appalachian Normal School/or Watauga Academy, I think).
Dr Plemmons led us into the transistion from Appalachian State Teachers' College to full University status. He made great inroads into getting more funding money from the university system. We were, and still are very anemic in that regard, even in our present Chancellor, Dr Peacock's, era, but Plemmons certainly deserved credit for much improvement in that aspect. The first real building boom on campus occurred during Dr Plemmons time at App. Herbert Wey greatly assisted in improving our image as far as academic reputation nationwide is concerned. Dr Thomas had his shortcomings but he provided great emphasis on the integrety of our science programs, quite successfully, in my opinion as well as getting research grants for various departments. Borkowski's name is slimed among atheletic fans, but his contribution to the arts can't be criticised very fairly. He was my least favorite leader, but he has his admirers among art and music lovers.
I have no real criticisms Of Dr. Peacock, but I wish he could have significantly raised our status as far as per student funding from the state is concerned. I'm not sure anybody could do much better; at least thus far they haven't seemed to be able to do so. We were near the bottom last I checked. Even the HBCU's are challenging us.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

JCline, good critique and short history lesson. Thanks.

I was thinking Plemmons or Wey for the reasons you stated. I was there with Thomas and have no major issues, at least looking back two decades after the fact. There was the issue with Dr. Byrd and College of Arts and Sciences but I remember that most likely because Dr. Byrd came out of the Physics and Astronomy Dept. Had I not been in that dept I might have not really been in the loop on that issue.

[JCline0429]

JCline, good critique and short history lesson. Thanks.

I was thinking Plemmons or Wey for the reasons you stated. I was there with Thomas and have no major issues, at least looking back two decades after the fact. There was the issue with Dr. Byrd and College of Arts and Sciences but I remember that most likely because Dr. Byrd came out of the Physics and Astronomy Dept. Had I not been in that dept I might have not really been in the loop on that issue.

Was Dr Callahan in the science department when you were there? I think he actually retired around '99 or '00 come to think of it. I helped him in a graduate methods course one summer...got paid for it and got a grade through an Eisenhower grant. Can't beat that. Brilliant man when it comes to geology. He didn't like the football program much because he couldn't get in on Saturday mornings to do his research. I went to his house on a few occasions and really enjoyed handling his flintlock long rifle that had been passed down to him from a mountain ancestor. I would love to be able to track him down.

[MACAPP86]

In most instances, you're looking for someone who has the right skillset for what the university needs, just like a company planning for CEO succession. I believe Peacock fit that admirably for his tenure as chancellor and the many other roles he served. Likewise, many before him played key roles to make contributions necessary for that particular time as well, some more so than others. Agree with JCline that there were others who made profound contributions in our proud history. Next task at hand is to find someone who can continue our momentum in academics, athletics, development and fighting for budget and capital dollars. As much as I will miss Peacock, guess my focus is more forward than looking in the rearview mirror.

[Rekdiver]

I got there in the Fall of 1970 . ken 's the best I experienced by a long shot.

[JCline0429]

In most instances, you're looking for someone who has the right skillset for what the university needs, just like a company planning for CEO succession. I believe Peacock fit that admirably for his tenure as chancellor and the many other roles he served. Likewise, many before him played key roles to make contributions necessary for that particular time as well, some more so than others. Agree with JCline that there were others who made profound contributions in our proud history. Next task at hand is to find someone who can continue our momentum in academics, athletics, development and fighting for budget and capital dollars. As much as I will miss Peacock, guess my focus is more forward than looking in the rearview mirror.

I hope we can find Dr Peacock's replacement from within our present administration. It's nice to have someone with outside experience, but we did pretty darn good with the one we have now.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

JCline, good critique and short history lesson. Thanks.

I was thinking Plemmons or Wey for the reasons you stated. I was there with Thomas and have no major issues, at least looking back two decades after the fact. There was the issue with Dr. Byrd and College of Arts and Sciences but I remember that most likely because Dr. Byrd came out of the Physics and Astronomy Dept. Had I not been in that dept I might have not really been in the loop on that issue.

Was Dr Callahan in the science department when you were there? I think he actually retired around '99 or '00 come to think of it. I helped him in a graduate methods course one summer...got paid for it and got a grade through an Eisenhower grant. Can't beat that. Brilliant man when it comes to geology. He didn't like the football program much because he couldn't get in on Saturday mornings to do his research. I went to his house on a few occasions and really enjoyed handling his flintlock long rifle that had been passed down to him from a mountain ancestor. I would love to be able to track him down.

Physics shared the one hall in the bottom floor of old Rankin with Geology. Physics had some lab space on that hall, so I would see the Geo profs often as I would be walking around. I only took one Geology course, and that was summer school. I was trying to avoid a year of Biology so I took one course in Geo and one course in Bio for Bio majors. The catalog changed my soph year so I went with the program that gave me the option of the above instead of one year of Bio and no Geo. So I never got to know the Geo (or Bio) dept that well.

Dr. Callahan retired in 04. He still has an email. http://geology.appstate.edu/faculty-sta ... e-callahan. Besides the prof I had in summer school, whose name I can not remember even when looking at the Geo dept page, I remember Dr. Raymond. His politics was a bit to the left and I remember having a few conservations with him on politics.

Getting credit and pay for course work. I don't think it can get better than that.

Your actual question I did not answer: I do remember Dr. Callahan. Why I remember this, but it seems his office space was right next to a large display of minerals and such in a display case in the hallway.

[fjblair]

I hope we hire an athletic friendly Chancellor, the last thing we need is a chancellor that doesn't understand the importance of athletics.

Also need one to continue the push to get App a professional degree.

In this day and age an athletics friendly administration is mandatory for most schools like ASU to flourish.

[JCline0429]

JCline, good critique and short history lesson. Thanks.

I was thinking Plemmons or Wey for the reasons you stated. I was there with Thomas and have no major issues, at least looking back two decades after the fact. There was the issue with Dr. Byrd and College of Arts and Sciences but I remember that most likely because Dr. Byrd came out of the Physics and Astronomy Dept. Had I not been in that dept I might have not really been in the loop on that issue.

Was Dr Callahan in the science department when you were there? I think he actually retired around '99 or '00 come to think of it. I helped him in a graduate methods course one summer...got paid for it and got a grade through an Eisenhower grant. Can't beat that. Brilliant man when it comes to geology. He didn't like the football program much because he couldn't get in on Saturday mornings to do his research. I went to his house on a few occasions and really enjoyed handling his flintlock long rifle that had been passed down to him from a mountain ancestor. I would love to be able to track him down.

Physics shared the one hall in the bottom floor of old Rankin with Geology. Physics had some lab space on that hall, so I would see the Geo profs often as I would be walking around. I only took one Geology course, and that was summer school. I was trying to avoid a year of Biology so I took one course in Geo and one course in Bio for Bio majors. The catalog changed my soph year so I went with the program that gave me the option of the above instead of one year of Bio and no Geo. So I never got to know the Geo (or Bio) dept that well.

Dr. Callahan retired in 04. He still has an email. http://geology.appstate.edu/faculty-sta ... e-callahan. Besides the prof I had in summer school, whose name I can not remember even when looking at the Geo dept page, I remember Dr. Raymond. His politics was a bit to the left and I remember having a few conservations with him on politics.

Getting credit and pay for course work. I don't think it can get better than that.

Your actual question I did not answer: I do remember Dr. Callahan. Why I remember this, but it seems his office space was right next to a large display of minerals and such in a display case in the hallway.

Jack was one of the most dedicated profs I've ever met.