Campus says 'farewell' to Interim Chancellor Ward

His stay was only about a year, but in that time UW-Green Bay Interim Chancellor David Ward kept the University moving forward, said Lou LeCalsey, chairman for the Chancellor’s Council of Trustees.

LeCalsey was among the speakers at a farewell gathering at the Weidner Center on Wednesday, May 27. Ward responded to the tributes (and good-natured kidding) by thanking the many friends, coworkers and colleagues who helped make the stay enjoyable for him and his wife, Judy. Ward turns over the reins to Chancellor-designee Thomas Harden on June 1.

Ward never settled into a maintenance mode, LeCalsey told the audience. He took two ideas spawned in the preceding Chancellor Bruce Shepard era — the Environmental Management and Business Institute and the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation — and pushed them toward becoming realities. And he navigated UW-Green Bay through turbulent state budget waters, all the while rallying the public for University programs, the arts and athletics.

Several speakers noted that Ward put aside his economic consulting business to return to his hometown and UW-Green Bay, where he got his start teaching finance about 40 years ago. Ward, who was later a professor and administrator at UW-Oshkosh and a vice president at UW System, was also a student at the UW Center in Green Bay.

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Photos by Mike Heine,
Office of Marketing and University Communication