ISUMAA

The Iowa Stater
May 2001
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Greg and Kathy Geoffroy during a recent campus visit. Photo by Michael Haynes.

Geoffroy to lead Iowa State
For Greg Geoffroy, it's all about people. He'll mention his grandmother, who used to read English vocabulary words to him as he fired back the Spanish equivalents. He'll point to his doctoral thesis adviser, who motivated him to achieve and gave him the freedom to be creative. He'll talk about staying in touch with former graduate students and missing his current colleagues when he moves on. He admits that working well with people is what steered his career from teaching and research into administration.

Geoffroy (JOE-free) becomes Iowa State's 14th president on July 1. He will leave behind the University of Maryland, where he has served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs since 1997. He also spent three months as interim president of the 32,000-student campus during the summer of 1998.

"I set out to be a professor —a teacher and a researcher — because that's what I really loved," Geoffroy said. "I fell into some of these administrative posts and I began to realize I was good at it, mostly because I like working with people, and that's what leading is about.

"Helping other people achieve at a high level is very satisfying for me."

Raised in Louisville, Geoffroy said he sought the Iowa State presidency for the high quality he saw here. Since the week in 1979 when he first visited Iowa State to present a chemistry department seminar and during subsequent trips to Ames, including his campus interview in January, he said he has been very impressed with the university. Its people are its strength, he said. The campus sells itself, too.

"A university campus is a special place. Iowa State has a beautiful campus," he said.

He calls Iowa State "a great university" and said his decision to accept the presidency "just felt good."

Louisville, it is
Leading a large university surely would have seemed like a long shot to 12-year-old Greg Geoffroy. The only child of parents who divorced when he was 3 years old, Geoffroy and his mother moved to her parents' home in Louisville. His mother died when he was 11 years old and Geoffroy was raised by his grandparents. In spite of their brief formal educations (sixth grade), they were "very supportive and encouraging" to the young boy.

He took to math and science in high school, and when it came to college, he selected chemistry and the local university.

"We didn't have a lot of money, so the University of Louisville was the only choice for me," he said.

He put himself through college with jobs and scholarships. On the first day of his senior year, he met freshman math major Kathy Carothers, also a Louisville resident. They were married four years later. He graduated from Louisville in 1968 and served two years as an officer aboard a U.S. Naval destroyer.

The Geoffroys arrived in suburban Los Angeles in 1971, he to begin his Ph.D. program at the California Institute of Technology, she to teach junior high math in nearby Rosemead.

From Pasadena, it was on to Pennsylvania State University, where Geoffroy spent a large chunk of his career. By 1982, he was a full professor and in 1988, he became chair of the chemistry department. Within six months, he was asked to serve as dean of Penn State's College of Science, with eight departments. He served as dean for almost eight years before moving on to Maryland.

Still, it's not his up-by-his-bootstraps education that leads his list of most satisfying accomplishments.

"I'm enormously proud of my Ph.D. students and of what they've accomplished. I still keep in touch with them," Geoffroy said. He also will leave the University of Maryland next month confident that he has helped "advance that university by building effective relationships. I feel close to a huge portion of the campus community," he said.

Geoffroy on Geoffroy
Like many others, Kathy Geoffroy believes her husband is the right guy for Iowa State.

"We've been so surprised at the number of letters we've received already, from alumni and community people, congratulating Greg and welcoming us to Ames. Even when they haven't met him, they seem to feel he's a good fit," she said.

He'll work hard for Iowa State, because that's what he's all about, she added.

Is he a workaholic?

"Oh sure," she said, without hesitating. "But he really, truly enjoys it.

"I didn't realize it when I first knew him. First there was the Ph.D., then tenure, then the next thing. And he kept working, 70, 80 hours a week. It gradually sank in: This is the way he is."

And even as the spouse who spends fewer hours with her husband each week because of his work ethic, she said she admires his commitment.

"He realizes he can't do everything himself. He likes to work in a team and get input and expertise from others," she said.

"He also wants to do things right, not for him, but for the institution he's working for at the time. That's very important to him and I admire that in him."

At home
Iowa State's next presidential couple relish their daily workouts. She's a regular in aerobics classes, he loves to run. Nursing a right "runner's knee" this spring, he was forced instead to grind out hours on various fitness machines. Geoffroy recalled he was introduced to squash as a young faculty member at Penn State and played for years. But he also admitted he hates to lose and gave up that game when it became apparent his hustle outshone his court skills.

Geoffroy likes to spend time outdoors, and over the years has attached himself to gardening, mountain biking — the steeper the better — and downhill skiing.

When he can, he enjoys these activities with his family. The Geoffroys have four children, ranging in age from 26 to 16 years. Susan is a cardiology nurse at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; Janet is a software developer for IBM in Endicott, N.Y.; David graduates from Penn State this month in economics; and Michael will begin his senior year of high school in Montgomery County, Md., this fall. Kathy will remain with Michael in Maryland for Geoffroy's first year as ISU president, accruing enviable frequent flyer miles. She anticipates she'll travel to Ames every two or three weeks, juggling Iowa State events and Michael's school events.

"We knew from the beginning (of Geoffroy's job search) this was how we'd work it if we got this far," Kathy said. "It's not ideal, but we can do it."

The transition year will give her time to find out what she can do for Iowa State and for Ames, she said. "I don't have an agenda for me," she said. "I'll support Greg in his role and be an advocate for the university. I enjoy meeting people — alumni, faculty, staff, students."

The former teacher also said she would like to volunteer in Ames math classrooms, as she did in State College, Penn. In Maryland, she has been tutoring junior high students in math.

The Geoffroys look forward to living in The Knoll. You see, even as undergraduate students in Louisville, they commuted to campus. So, oddly enough, on-campus living is an opportunity they haven't had yet in their 30-plus years in higher education.