Main Story on Roger Taylor

After 30 years of working as an attorney, Roger Taylor was ready to retire but his Alma Mater called him home.

Taylor originally planned to retire in 2001 from Kirkland & Ellis law firm in Chicago. Instead, he chose to strengthen Knox College’s institutional self-confidence. Now he’s ready to retire. “On June 30^thabout 4:35pm, I will walk out, salute and go to the farm,” said Taylor.

Born to a small farm in Fulton County, Illinois, Taylor graduated from Knox College in 1963 and Northwestern University Law School in 1971 with honors. Since 1988, Taylor was the Chair of Knox’s Board of Trustees but left in 2001 to become interim President of Knox College for 6 months. Taylor officially became president on October 11^th, 2002.

After former President Dr. Richard Millman’s unexpected leave, the Board of Trustees turned to one of their own. “It was a calling to do the job,” Taylor said. The Board believed that having an alumnus president would benefit the college. Taylor reaffirmed by saying, “All I had to do is say Roger Taylor class of 1963, and that was the end of the introduction minuet.” In fact, he stayed for 10 years because he felt that as alumnus, “you can’t just walk out or stay for a while and 10 years seemed like a nice time.”

Taylor had several challenges. In 2001, Knox College had a 43 million dollar endowment and a 16 percent spending rate. In 2010 the endowment was 81.9 million dollars and a 5.3 percent spending rate. “Everyone had become an accountant,” said Taylor. The college could not afford several necessities. Taylor added that, “the college had required students to clean their own bathrooms…that didn’t many any sense.” There was a loss of self-confidence which in result caused low enrollment and poor endowment.

To improve Knox College’s institutional self-confidence, Taylor mentioned fixing the Old Main bell. It was a “metaphor for strengthening the institutional self-confidence of the college,” said Taylor. Chancie Ferris Booth professor of political science, Lane Sunderland, agreed with Taylor. “Fixing the bell was one of the highpoints all right…it boosted institutional self-confidence,” Sunderland said.

The president relaxed the formal tone normally associated with his job. “The law firm where I practiced was open door, on a first name basis,” Taylor said. He moved out of the spacious president’s office into a joining conference room to be more open to staff and students. Moving out of this office stripped away the “status consciousness” as Taylor put it. He also introduced himself to all as Roger not Mr. Taylor or Mr. President.

His humility is one of his distinguishing attributes. “Legacy is too fancy for a farm boy from Fulton County Illinois,” said Taylor. He also denies taking all the credit for Knox’s improvement. “I can’t take credit for that myself…I happen to be at a time with gifted faculty and dedicated senior staff.”

Taylor has some regrets. The biggest challenge for Knox College is “raising money, raising money, raising money … Knox has always struggled,” he said. He also regrets not collecting enough money to remodel the Alumni Hall. Freshman senate member Shelly Bhanot stated, “Each year we don’t repair Alumni Hall it costs us a million dollars more, had we repaired alumni hall 5 years ago, it would have been much cheaper.” The current endowment is healthy but it is not strong enough to add newer academic buildings or remodel older ones. The last academic building built in Knox College was the Science and Math Center.

Money is needed for faculty. “I wish I could have raised money to increase salary of the staff,” Taylor said. One of the main concerns is losing academically attractive professors to colleges other than Knox. “[Salaries] need to be increased to keep us competitive with institutions that we compare ourselves too,” said professor Sunderland.

After these 10 years, he feels that this phase of his life is over. He will not return to Knox for two years. The first thing Taylor will do is go to his family farm located 30 miles south of Galesburg and fix his 2001 pickup truck. He and his wife Anne want to travel while still being active in non-profit organizations. He serves in Galesburg Regional Economic Development Association and is active in the Rotary Club.

In 2012, he will return for the celebration of the 175^th Anniversary of Knox College’s founding. He believes that the anniversary would be a good platform for Dr. Teresa Amott, his successor, to begin her presidency.

On July 1^st, 2011 Dr. Amott will succeed Taylor. Dr. Amott has extensive academic experience. She was provost and dean of faculty for Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. She assumed these positions for 6 year and renovated HWS’s facilities. In fact, she raised $200 million to add new academic buildings. Unlike Taylor who holds a law degree, Dr. Amott has a doctorate in economics from Boston College and a B.A. from Smith College. She held academic appointments to Bucknell University, Harvard University, University of Massachusetts - Boston and Amherst, and Wellesley College. She will be the first female President of Knox College.

Now as a builder, Taylor’s return to Knox shaped his life. “[Knox College] made me a little more patient, but not much and a little more careful of what I say, but not much,” he said. In fact, Dean of Knox College and Vice President of Academic Affairs Larry Breitborde backed Taylor’s statement. “It was like this long term, higher ed. seminar kind of thing … when he talks about learning patience he had to do that,” Breitborde said.

As Taylor recalled, being President of Knox College was more time consuming than practicing law and he is not sure whether he enjoyed the job. “I enjoyed it most of the time, but I still have not decided. I’m going to decide when I retire whether it was a good idea or not,” said Taylor. He also said that he gained more respect working in higher education. “It gave me enormous respect for people that work in higher education for peanuts…those who are called to teach in our colleges.” However, working for higher education was not always pleasant.

Taylor disliked how people brought petty issues to discussion. “My least favorite thing is that sometimes some on campus spend more time talking about petty issues than the issues really deserved,” said Taylor. He mentioned that “some people got jazzed up about the landscape; there [were] some dead trees by the Center of Fine Arts.”

However, Taylor sees positive qualities in his job. He appreciates seeing students grow from freshman year to graduation. “Being able to watch high school students who I met when they were high school juniors and seniors as prospective students coming through Old Main the watching them come to Knox. Mature, for the most part, intellectually and mature emotionally and then walk across the stage at commencement…and I get to hand them their degree,” said Taylor.