Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 11, 1994 TAG: 9402140307
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: STEPHEN FOSTER and ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Friends and associates talked again and again about a man of courage, compassion and vision, about a man whose death was a loss for both the university and higher education as a whole.
"All universities have a mind, but Jim McComas brought a heart to Virginia Tech," said Darrel Martin, assistant to the president at Tech.
"James McComas saw the university not just as some process, certainly not just as grades 13-17 . . . but as a catalyst in lives, a change point," said Martin. "He personified the belief that education was the answer . . . not only for the economy, but also for the quality of life."
McComas had a long career in higher education, and was well-known in education circles. He was president of the University of Toledo from 1985 to 1988, arriving there after an 11-year stint as president at Mississippi State University.
He arrived at Virginia Tech in 1988. Less than a year later, the school - like all publicly funded educational institutions across the state - was hit with the first round of budget cuts.
The university lost $38 million in state funding over the next five years, and continues to grapple with cutbacks. McComas strove to protect faculty positions, and although research funds grew from $80 million to $130 during his tenure, he re-emphasized the school's role in serving students.
"It was a pivotal presidency," said Provost Fred Carlisle, who was hired by McComas. "He moved the university in important new directions by emphasizing undergraduate instruction and university outreach, as well as the university's role as a research institution."
"Jim was the right man for the job at the time," said Larry Harris, associate dean of the College of Education at Tech. He led the search that hired McComas, and worked as his executive assistant for four years.
"He brought a concern for undergraduates . . . a trend we're seeing nationally," Harris said.
"He once told me he wanted to make it impossible for people to spend four years at Tech and not meet him at least once," said Jeff Morrill, now a senior, who had McComas as his adviser.
And so McComas visited dormitories or walked to lunch issuing bright "hellos" and occasionally inviting a student or two along to the campus Burger King.
"When Jim hired me, he told me there were three things he wanted me to do," said Tom Goodale, vice president for student affairs. "He wanted me to personalize the undergraduate experience, work very hard on diversifying the student body, and to improve student life facilities.
"I think what he'll be remembered for is, he cared."
McComas created the Presidential Scholars program, wherein from two to four outstanding freshmen received full scholarships and a bonus - their adviser was the university president. That's how Morrill met McComas.
"He's a guardian angel; a grandfatherly figure," said Morrill, who hopes to run for public office someday. "We didn't talk so much about courses, but about Virginia politics. It was much broader than what you usually associate with advisers."
"When he first came to Tech, he went around to all the dorms so any student could just come talk to him," said Paula Ratcliffe, president of the Class of '91. "If I had a problem, I knew I could just go in his office and just sit down and chat."
"The students, particularly the undergraduates, received attention from him like no other president in 40, 50 years," said Paul Torgersen, who succeeded McComas as president.
Torgersen also served as interim president before McComas arrived, and was a finalist for the presidential post. McComas took the job following a great period of turmoil: then-President William Lavery had resigned in the wake of controversy over athletic programs and a questionable land deal.
"There was a sense that the university at that time needed an outside influence, and I think they made the right choice," Torgersen said. "I'm absolutely convinced that by selecting Jim McComas six years ago, the university was very well-served."
Perhaps because of the state budget crunch, McComas began to look beyond the university for growth opportunities that ultimately would benefit Tech. During his tenure, the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center renovation project was begun, as were efforts to build the "smart road" that would speed travel between the Roanoke and New River valleys. In January 1993, he was among the early supporters of what became the New Century Council, designed to link the two valleys.
Former Roanoke Vice Mayor Beverly Fitzpatrick Jr. became the council's executive director, working under co-chairmen Tom Robertson and McComas.
"I just got a note from him about three weeks ago," Fitzpatrick said of McComas the week after Christmas. McComas had taken the time to go over a draft of the council's goals.
McComas was famous for jotting remarks and notes of all kinds. Housekeepers once found a handwritten note complimenting them for a well-washed floor.
Associates described him as a man who gave of himself completely.
"He literally gave himself entirely to his work. He had virtually no leisure time activities," said Harris, his former assistant. "It's telling that he sorted his own mail. Every piece of mail. He believed if anyone else sorted his mail for him, he would lose touch with what people's concerns were."
McComas lived his last months in Columbus, Ohio. It was in that state, many years ago, that he came to know Harold Enarson, a former president of Ohio State University.
"As a close friend, I'm just saddened beyond words," Enarson said.
"I think he is one of the finest university presidents that I have encountered, and I've known the whole crew," said Enarson, now living in Boulder, Colo.
"His values were superb, and his belief in students . . . and his willingness to fight for what he believed in," were what McComas was made of, said Enarson.
McComas was dean of the College of Education and a professor of higher education at the University of Tennessee, dean of the College of Education at Kansas State University, and professor and head of the department of elementary and secondary education at New Mexico State University.
The Pritchard, W.Va., native began his career as a high school teacher in Fort Gay, W.Va. Besides his wife, Adele, he is survived by two children, Patrick and Cathleen.
"Education wasn't just his livelihood. Education had been his life," Martin said. "His memory will stay with Virginia Tech for many, many seasons to come."
The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, which named McComas an honorary member last year, was to hold a "silver taps" ceremony for him late Thursday. Three trumpeters were to perform the call from the top of the War Memorial Chapel.
A funeral will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. in Worthington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. A memorial service will be held at Virginia Tech next week. The location and time will be announced later.
Staff writer Brian Kelley contributed information to this report.
\ JAMES MCCOMAS\ HIS PRESIDENCY AT VIRGINIA TECH\ \ September 1988: McComas named Virginia Tech's 13th president.\ \ January 1989: Virginia Tech takes over management of Graduate Center of the Roanoke Valley.\ \ July 1989: Norfolk Southern Corp. announces gift of Hotel Roanoke to Virginia Tech.\ \ August 1989: State orders first round of budget cuts.\ Spring 1990: State orders second round of budget cuts.\ \ September 1990: Virginia Tech included in U.S. News & World-Report's Top 50 national universities.\ \ November 1990: Virginia Tech told to prepare for third round of budget cuts. The first two rounds in 1989 and 1990 equaled $46.7 million.\ \ February 1991: Virginia Tech joins the Big East football conference.\ \ November 1991: National Science Foundation designates Virginia Tech one of 11 national science and technology centers.\ \ January 1992: Virginia Tech unveils the Electronic Village.\ \ January 1992: Mississippi State University names its creative arts complex McComas Hall. McComas was president there from 1976 to 1985.\ \ February 1992: Virginia Tech reaches $41 million goal for Hotel Roanoke and adjacent convention center with Norfolk Southern's $2 million gift to the joint project between Tech and Roanoke.\ \ February 1992: Applications to Virginia Tech reach an all-time high.\ \ November 1992: State voters approve a $472 million bond issue, for which McComas campaigned heavily. It provided $46 million for construction at Virginia Tech.\ \ November 1992: McComas named chairman of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.\ \ June 1993: McComas named co-chairman of the New Century Business Council.\ \ August 1993: Final federal funding obtained for Virginia Tech's biotechnology center; construction to begin in 1994.\ \ September 1993: McComas diagnosed with colon cancer.\ \ Sept. 28, 1993: McComas announces his resignation.\ \ Feb. 10, 1994: McComas dies in Columbus, Ohio, where he had received medical treatment.
by CNB