At 47, John Roush still looks like the college athlete (and three time Academic All-American) he once was. And no wonder. He likes hiking down canyons and up mountains, he runs regularly, plays basketball, and skis (on water and on snow).

He's a man of action, yet he is also a dreamer. With a smile, he admits he would love to sing someday on a Centre stage. "That's a fantasy," he says, not an assertion of talent. But in truth, he has tackled "The Star-Spangled Banner" before University of Richmond basketball games. In front of 7,000 people. Solo.

"I love to laugh, I love to play," says Roush, currently a vice president for planning at the University of Richmond. "And there's a bit of the thrill seeker in me."

Perhaps that explains, in part, his ebullient excitement in becoming Centre's 20th president. It's a new adventure, a new thrill. Most of all, it's a new opportunity to get things done.

John Roush's appointment officially begins July 1-his 48th birthday-but the campus has already learned quite a lot about its new leader. He tends to lead by consensus. He listens to what people say. He's informal-but not laid back. He's a devoted family man and active Presbyterian who likes BLT sandwiches and Payday candy bars.

And, although he has never been a college president, he points out that he has spent most of his career with some of the best. "I have had three mentors in the presidency," he told the assembled Centre community when he was first introduced on Jan. 30. "The first taught me how to love a college. The second taught me how to be bold-and raise money. The third, Rich Morrill, taught me how to plan for and build the academic program by bringing everyone to the table."

Former Centre president Richard Morrill has known Roush since Morrill became Richmond president in 1988.

"John steps in to make things happen," Morrill says. "I think there's a charisma about John. There's just a kind of natural energy that he has."

Roush himself describes his energy as that of an "unabashed optimist."

"To be an optimist is to be out making things better," he explains. "Words are important. Actions are more important."

Whether it's getting five sides to agree on one direction for the university, or designing a leadership school from the ground up, or chairing the board of the nation's largest YMCA, John Roush is out making more things better than almost anyone in town.


The University of Richmond has flourished in the 16 years since Roush joined the staff as executive assistant to the president. One of its most distinctive attributes is the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, made possible by a $20-million gift in 1987. Much of the credit for the program-from writing the proposal to designing the original curriculum-goes to Roush.

His responsibilities at the university include overseeing a $20 million financial aid budget, $14 million in Pew Charitable Trust grants for civic and entrepreneurial initiatives, and the $7-million budget for the NCAA Division I athletics program. He also serves as secretary to the board of trustees.

His close association with Rich Morrill, himself a nationally recognized strategic planner, was a serendipitous alliance, for it's as a planner that Roush has made his name. "I count myself as a futurist," he says. "If you are imagining what the future is or what you'd like it to be, the next logical step is to say, 'How do we best prepare ourselves and our students for that future?'"

His practical side quickly adds, "And how will we pay for it?"

Roush enjoys bringing a sense of "passion" and "drama" to telling his institution's story, an essential part of any plan, he says. Most of all, however, he likes the collegial nature of determining an institution's future.

"Planning is not an individual experience, it's a collective experience," he says. "That's the magic."


By all accounts, collegiality is one of Roush's defining characteristics. "There are no self-made men or women," he says. "All of us have been shaped by others." Among the many he credits, perhaps the most important are his parents.

Roush grew up in Kettering, Ohio (a Dayton suburb), in a close family that valued education. His father was a school superintendent; his mother, a nurse. Both older sisters had school-system careers, and Roush assumed he would, too.

At Ohio University he played football and studied hard, in part due to the influence of a young home ec major he met in the cafeteria line the first day of school. If he wanted to see Susie Miller during the week, it had to be a study date. "Susie is a serious student and a hard worker," he says of the woman he would eventually marry. "She was a wonderful, powerful influence in my life, particularly as it related to intellectual work."

When he graduated in 1972, summa cum laude with a degree in English, he still planned to become a high school teacher and coach. Then fate intervened.

"All of a sudden, I got this opportunity to go to Miami University [in Ohio] and be the head freshman football coach and get my master's degree at the same time," he recalls. The opportunity turned into a position as a full-time assistant coach, and it looked as if he would be a head coach before long. After a few years, however, he realized that a career in college coaching was not conducive to the family life he and Susie had planned.

Roush decided to stay at Miami long enough to earn a Ph.D. in educational administration, then return to his original goal. Again, fate stepped in. The president and vice president for student affairs at Miami invited Roush to join the staff. Five years later, he accepted a similar position at Richmond.

Bruce Heilman, UR's president at the time, knew he'd found the man for the job within five minutes of meeting Roush. "He has competence, confidence, and character," says Heilman. "He interacts better than anyone I know in dealing with students, faculty, and alumni. He has the touch."

Heilman, now UR chancellor, notes that he has something of a record in choosing whom to hire. A dozen of his proteges have gone on to become college presidents.


Roush's community-mindedness has made him a prominent civic leader in Richmond, where he has served as board chair for the YMCA, Police Athletic League, and Carver Promise (a mentoring program for elementary school children), and he was on the boards of the Virginia Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Theatre IV. He's done two tours as an elder in his church and taught Sunday school, and he has served on several committees for the public schools.

His ability to focus on the greater purpose makes him an effective leader, according to Kay Lambert King, executive director of the 17,000 member Tuckahoe YMCA. "I'll never forget my first week here," she recalls. "He told me, 'You'll have many adults in your office wanting this or that. But the Y is for the kids. Susie and I are here to be advocates for the children.'"

It's not surprising that Roush seems attuned to the needs of students. His son Luke is a sophomore student-athlete at Duke, while Mark, also "a fine student and athlete," is starting to look at colleges.
Roush says Centre students will see him in unusual places, and he wants to help them "get out of their tribe." On his second official trip to campus he wandered into Sutcliffe, where he found several members of a campus organization running a book swap. "He seemed really open to new ideas," says one of the students, Joe Glerum '00 of Oswego, N.Y. A computer science major, Glerum also appreciates Roush's enthusiasm for e-mail. Perhaps most impressive to students: the new president has been seen eating in the student dining hall, where few adults venture.

Bogdan Fleschiu, a UR junior from Romania, agrees with Glerum's assessment: "Dr. Roush is a very approachable man, with great listening skills, a man who can truly inspire you."


Dick Mateer '62, a chemistry professor turned dean at Richmond, believes Roush is "a perfect match" for Centre.

"John is enthusiastic about breathing," Mateer adds with a laugh. "He doesn't lose his cool. He views things as challenges, not problems, and there's always a solution. He listens to what people have to say. And I think he'll be very effective as a fundraiser, because he is so believable. His enthusiasm and optimism just win you over. You can't help but like the guy."

Certainly initial reports from the faculty side of Centre are favorable.

Eric Mount, Rodes Professor of Religion and one of four faculty members on the search committee, was impressed by Roush's commitment to making a difference for good. "I think in his interview he came across as passionate about what he does," says Mount. "He wants to make a difference. And he sees higher education as a way to do it."

Physics professor Marshall Wilt '64 was one of the first members of the faculty to sit down to a meal with Roush. "He seemed to be in the data-collecting mode, trying to get a feel for the place. He didn't seem to have any preconceived notions about what the college should be," Wilt recalls. "My first impression is he is a very warm, genuine person with whom I was immediately at ease."

Adds Bill Garriott '66, a government professor who served on the search committee, "He's a very down-to-earth guy with a lot of common sense."


Although Roush comes to Centre with an open agenda and a willingness to listen to Centre's story before he starts making pronouncements, he does have some strong ideas about the needs of higher education today, particularly at small private colleges such as Centre.

Places that put "a high value on the student experience," he says, must frequently deal with the exceedingly high expectations-of parents, of trustees, of alumni-"concerning what's happening in the lives of students." Inevitably, he says, there are disappointments.

Furthermore, he adds, many students now arrive at college "with significant personal problems. A place like Centre must find ways to sensitively respond to these needs. The upside of this situation is that it makes people want to send their children to places like Centre. The down side is that they really do expect us to take care of them."

A third major issue, he says, is "price and its unmistakable relationship to financial aid and to the cost of attending the college."

Despite the challenges facing liberal arts colleges in particular, and higher education in general, Roush emphasizes his eagernêhis new position.

"Centre College has a long-standing reputation for doing excellent things," he says. "I needed to go to a place of promise and possibility. Centre is that kind of place. This is where I can do my best work. I am honored to have the chance."

And if the Colonels should happen to need a tenor to open a game one day, well, he's ready for that challenge, too.

- D.F.J.

Centrepiece
Centre College
600 West Walnut St.
Danville, KY 40422

Phone: (859) 238-5717
Fax: (859) 238-5723
E-mail: alumnews@centre.edu
or johnsond@centre.edu