Growing Up in Arizona

GROWING UP IN ARIZONA

REMEMBERING the PAST

PUBLISHED BY ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Neil Giuliano (former mayor of Tempe), Lattie Coor (President Emeritus of Arizona State University), and Bill Post (Chairman and CEO (ret.), Pinnacle West Capital Corp.) Tevis Photographic Front cover: Lattie and Elva Coor on the Arizona Trail.

FOREWORD

In 2018, ASU President Michael Crow invited me to write a book about growing up in Arizona, the uniqueness of the nation’s 48th state, and how I feel about its past, present, and its place in the future.

As Michael put it, “There’s a lot that’s special about Arizona that’s not articulated very often. First, the state has intact Native American communities, more than any other part of the country. Arizona also has this unparalleled connection to nature. The fact that the majority of people who live here were not born in Arizona. We’re from everywhere. The state also offers a special form of American democracy — government by plebiscite, with unbelievable participation and progress for women involved in politics.”

“Lattie, ASU really grew up under your leadership. You have the longest view of any current leader. You’ve run institutions both here and across the country.

You know the differences. You were born here and grew up here. This makes you uniquely qualified to help us better understand who we are today, and where you see us going,” encouraged Michael.

This book was an opportunity for me to trace my journey from its rural West Valley roots to all that I have learned from the various roles I have enjoyed in my career in higher education. I hope my personal history provides a framework for larger discussions about who we are, where we are as a state and a university, and what the future looks like for higher education and its role in society.

I hope you enjoy sharing the story with me, and the friends and colleagues I’ve invited to help me tell it.

Lattie F. Coor President Emeritus, Arizona State University

President Emeritus Lattie Coor and ASU President Michael Crow at the dedication of the Lattie F. Coor Hall on January 7, 2004.

GROWING UP IN THE SALT RIVER VALLEY

•

“My life was greatly influenced by where I was born and raised.”

35

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

•

“It was the 60’s and at the age of 32, I became the Vice Chancellor of Trouble just as the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War protests became campus-wide challenges.”

10

MY LINEAGE IN ARIZONA

•

“The opportunity for a better life drove Arizona’s growth throughout the 20th Century and now this one.”

16

THE EARLY YEARS AND THE IMPACT OF WORLD WAR TWO

•

“My school years were marked by significant world events and meaningful personal experiences.”

28 ON TO COLLEGE

•

“What I found quickly at NAU was that young people can be inspired by coming into direct contact with remarkable teachers.”

42

WELCOME TO VERMONT

•

“We focused on two challenges during my presidency: Improve UVM’s infrastructure (by a capital campaign) and improve the East Coast’s recognition of our academic reputation.”

48

RECONNECTING WITH ARIZONA

•

“ASU was then and remains today the most attractive public university franchise in the nation.”

58

ASU INAUGURATION

•

“As I learned in my years in Vermont, the Inaugural event is an important moment to put a bold agenda on the table.”

CONTENTS

60 THE 4 PILLARS

•

“In 1990, my goals for the future were focused on one thing — quality in all we do.”

82

A WORLD CLASS MULTI-CAMPUS SYSTEM

•

“Done right, ASU will be one of the great universities in America and I think it’s on its way.”

92

THE POWER OF COLLABORATION

•

“Universities are good at exploring big ideas and doing the research to help determine their feasibility. But universities don’t move ideas to execution without committed partners.”

116

WHAT'S NEXT FOR ASU AND ARIZONA

•

“I had now been at ASU for 12 years and believed it was time for the next generation to take this university to an even higher level of quality in every aspect of our mission.”

130

CAPTURING THE VOICE OF ARIZONANS

•

“The Gallup Arizona Poll (2006-2009) was the first critical step in building a citizens’ agenda with clear goals that were grounded in the minds and hearts of the people who live here.”

108

MORE WAYS TO CONNECT WITH COMMUNITY

•

“Athletics are often the first connection people feel to a university. Honorary Degrees at ASU recognize people who make extraordinary contributions to ASU, Arizona and the larger society.”

136

CELEBRATING 20 YEARS

•

“Lattie’s vision for a trusted organization that could have a meaningful impact on the future of Arizona, based on solid research, delivering on promises, and engaging the broader community has been realized, perhaps even beyond Lattie’s wildest dreams.”

– Sybil Francis

Growing Up In Arizona

It is a universal fact of life that none of us get to choose our parents, or where and in what era we are born. I was extraordinarily fortunate on all three counts.

Iwas born at Good Samaritan Hospital in Phoenix in 1936, at the depth of the Depression, when the state of Arizona was only 24 years old. Phoenix, with a population of 55,000, was the capitol of this newest state in the nation with a total population of 475,000. My parents were elementary school teachers dedicated to preparing young people, including me and my two brothers, for a successful life.

Even though Arizona is the 6th largest state in the nation, the years approaching and following World War II revealed an array of communities, including Phoenix, which had a “down home” feeling. People knew and cared about one another to a degree not seen since that era. Both the Depression and the War contributed to a strong sense of community.

It has been my good fortune to have lived here over a span of 80 years. I have a rich array of memories, experiences, and friendships to draw upon. I hope my story will introduce you to the very special features of this extraordinary state and its exceptional people.

My early life was greatly influenced by where I was raised in Arizona.

The geography and history of the Salt River Valley made it a unique and desirable destination for the early settlers, native and immigrant, and set the stage for future development. To help you appreciate and understand how special this part of Arizona is, I’ll give you a quick glimpse of its history.

In the days of the dinosaurs, the Salt River Valley was a vast mountain range. As the centuries passed, the mountain ranges shifted with motions that changed the tectonic plates, stretching them to two or three times their former size with an undulating basin and

range system. Geologist Brian Gootee of the Arizona Geological Survey judges the mountains that survived include the South Mountains, the Estrellas, the White Tanks, the Sacaton Mountains and the McDowell Mountains. This happened about 25 to 30 million years ago.

The Valley historically has two rainy seasons: summer monsoon storms from the south and winter storms from the Pacific. ASU meteorologist Randy Cerveny says, “where in Phoenix the rain falls depends partly on the mountains that surround the Valley.”

THE SALT RIVER VALLEY

THE SALT RIVER VALLEY

Avondale, where I lived through my high school years, is located in that Valley, where fertile farmland is fed by three rivers — the Gila, Salt and Agua Fria. The three rivers converge in Avondale up against the Estrellas, depositing fertile soil for agriculture.

The ditches and canals that brought water to the Valley’s farms also kept us cool and happy. Whitney Collection, Courtesy of Glendale Arizona Historical Society

The Gila River, historically the major river from New Mexico to the Colorado River, stretches nearly 600 miles from the Gila wilderness on the border of New Mexico, draining into nearly 60,000 acres composing one-half of the agricultural land in Arizona.

The Salt River originates in the White Mountains near the New Mexico border and is joined by the Verde River which begins in the center of Arizona.

The Agua Fria River, 100 miles long and 32 miles from Waddell Dam, traverses Peoria, Glendale,

Surprise, El Mirage, Youngtown, Phoenix and Avondale. It originates north of Prescott and flows around the eastern end of the Bradshaw Mountains and on to Lake Pleasant, which in recent years was made into a reservoir.

The Salt River Project began with a group of farmers and ranchers. Together they offered their land as collateral for federal funds to build the Roosevelt Dam.

Courtesy of SRP

THE VALLEY’S EARLIEST SETTLERS

The waters of the Valley’s rivers supported the Hohokam people who lived in Arizona beginning in the 2nd century A.D. The Hohokam settled throughout the Salt River Valley where Metropolitan Phoenix is now located. They were an agricultural people that, over the centuries, dug a network of canals to harness and tap the water from one of the region’s two major rivers, the Salt and the Gila.

By 1300 A.D., the Hohokam were the largest population in the prehistoric Southwest, and the largest native population north of Mexico City. They grew cotton and tobacco, as well as corn, beans and squash known as the “Three Sisters” because these crops complement and support each other during growth, and the combination provides complete nutrition.

For meat, they hunted deer, Big Horn Sheep, antelope, squirrel, and mice. For reasons still unclear — perhaps drought, disease, or fear of enemies — they vacated the Salt River Valley in the 14th century, likely moving toward the higher country. It is believed that some of their descendants are currently members of the tribal communities of the Pima, Maricopa, Ak-Chin, and Tohono O’odham tribes that live today on vast reservations that stretch from Phoenix to the Mexican border.

The first non-natives to enter the Arizona terrain were the Conquistadors who explored the Southwest over 20 years before America was founded. Coronado’s expedition through current New Mexico and Arizona occurred 80 years before the Mayflower landed on Plymouth Rock.

The history of the American West is written in the physical relocation of water. Land and sunshine are not portable, but water can be moved.

Unlike other places in the West, the roots of Greater Phoenix were not in mining, ranching, or as a stopping point on a significant trade route. Those activities were vital in other parts of the state, but not here.

Neither the Spanish nor the Mexicans settled in the Valley in significant numbers. There were no historic missions or forts that stimulated the growth of Phoenix.

Beginning with the Hohokam, the Valley was a farming community. The 1,000 miles of dirt canals they dug became the genesis of what became modern Phoenix, now the 5th largest city in the country.

Grady Gammage, Jr.

Phoenix Attorney and Author

Photo courtesy of S’edav Va’aki Museum (formerly Pueblo Grande Museum)

The Origins of Modern Phoenix and Avondale

Phoenix and my hometown, Avondale, were both founded in the 1860’s as people began settling in the Salt River Valley.

PHOENIX

Jack Swilling, known as the “Father of Phoenix,” came from Wickenburg to the Phoenix area in 1867. He settled on 40 acres that is now the site of Sky Harbor airport. This land was also the site of a former Hohokam farming community of some 20,000 people that existed eight centuries before. Swilling persuaded several local people to help him activate the ancient canals and he set out to grow food for those people who were beginning to settle in the area.

The origins of Phoenix dispel one of the persistent myths of the American West: that settlement is the result of rugged individuals eking out their livelihood from a hardscrabble personal struggle.

When Swilling arrived in the Valley, he witnessed the contemporary tribes of his time irrigating their fields, and he realized that the Salt River Valley offered rich farmland. By 1868, he had water flowing in a ditch he constructed. The Swilling ditch set off two decades of active canal building.

Swilling and his partners cultivated about 1,000 acres. They grew crops and sold land to newcomers, profiting from the enterprise of settlement. They were joined by other like-minded entrepreneurs. It was a pattern that would be repeated again and again.

Grady Gammage, Jr. Phoenix Attorney and Author

Photo courtesy of S’edav Va’aki Museum (formerly Pueblo Grande Museum)

Artist: Roger Whitney Glendale, AZ

MY LINEAGE IN ARIZONA

My mother, Elnora Witten, came to Arizona with her family in 1907 when Arizona was still a territory. The reason the family moved to Arizona from a prosperous life of farming in northwestern Missouri was to cure my grandmother’s diagnosis of “consumption,” the early term for tuberculosis.

The family had already lost two young children to the disease and they feared the same would be likely for my grandmother and their remaining children. The most common treatment at the time was to go to a warm, dry place for rehabilitation. Happily, my grandmother survived in the Arizona climate, as did my mother, who was only a year old when they arrived.

Even before statehood, Arizona had gained a reputation as the ideal climate for treating respiratory diseases, which led my mother’s family to move permanently to Phoenix.

They intended to stay, and so my grandfather built an 8-unit apartment house at the corner of Roosevelt and 5th Avenue. He bought a house on Central near where the Palms Theatre was at one time. A man of some means, he built another house and planted a citrus grove at Baseline and 11th Avenue. Shusaburo Watanabe and his family, one of the early Japanese flower growers, lived in the South Phoenix house in exchange for tending the grove.

Shusaburo’s parents had emigrated to America in 1918. They were U.S. citizens. Unfortunately, the family was forcibly evacuated from their South Phoenix home in June of 1942, and sent to the Poston Arizona Camp.

My maternal grandparents

Elnora and Samuel Witten

Grandmother Witten holding baby Elnora at one year old.

The opportunity for a better life drove Arizona’s prosperity throughout the 20th Century and now this one.

A PROPHECY COMES TRUE

At 10 am on the morning of March 11, 1911, former President Theodore Roosevelt stepped onto the balcony of Old Main at what would become Arizona State University and looked out at a crowd estimated at 2,000 people. Teddy had come to the Arizona Territory to dedicate what would become Roosevelt Dam, built over sixty miles to the northeast in the Salt River Canyon. The dam was the first major project built under the National Reclamation Act of 1902.

Roosevelt was expected to make only brief remarks, but feeling ebullient, he launched into an oration and a prophecy:

“I firmly believe that as the East becomes better educated, this will be one of the places to which visitors will come from all parts of the country. Moreover, I believe as your irrigation projects are established, we will see 75 to 100 thousand people here.”

Teddy was right, he just didn’t look far enough ahead.

Grady Gammage, Jr. Phoenix Attorney and Author

A report by the Center for the Future of Arizona noted that, since territorial days in 1900 and statehood in 1912, two-thirds of Arizonans were born out of state, a trend that is fairly constant to this day. No other state has such a consistently held pattern.

It is this pattern of migration that accounts for the presence of the Coor family in Arizona.

What attracts people to Arizona? It’s usually a new job, the chance to own a home or go to college, a great climate, a lower cost of living or a more comfortable retirement.

1900 1950 2012 2019

I was born in 1906 in Texas and lived on the family farm for 11 years before moving to Arizona for the first time. We raised cotton and milo maize. We had range cattle, horses, milk cows, and a garden when there was enough wind to pump water into the pond.

From 1914 to 1917, we had a very severe drought. We were forced to sell all the livestock and seek work elsewhere. Fortunately, two of my father’s sisters were living in Arizona, and so we moved there.

My folks bought a place on the Arizona Canal, and we stayed there for four or five years. But the land had been expensive, and the price of cotton had fallen. My father went broke, so he decided that he had been away from Texas long enough. We sold everything and headed back to our farm.

My brothers and I went to Eola High School, and I graduated with a three-year degree. I finished my fourth year back in Arizona. During the Texas years, my dad gave us boys five acres of cotton to take care of on our own. Whatever we grew on it, and whatever we got out of it, would be ours. My acres brought about $500, which was quite a bit at the time.

My father’s family first came to Arizona in 1917. It was just five years after statehood.

I bought myself a suit, a hat, and a train ticket back to Arizona

Lattie F. Coor Sr.

From the Coor Family Book, published in 1989

At first, they lived on a farm alongside the Arizona Canal between Glendale and Peoria. My father was next to the youngest of 13 brothers and sisters. He finished his elementary education in Peoria (5th through 8th grade), and when he returned several years later, he completed his last year of high school at Phoenix Union.

My grandparents Dempsey “Babe” Coor and Mary Victoria Coor. Right and top: Our farmhouse in Eola, Texas

MY LINEAGE IN ARIZONA

The roots of Avondale began in 1860 when Billy Moore, a merchant, settled 20 miles south of Phoenix near the Agua Fria River.

AVONDALE

Billy Moore bought land and established one of the earliest stagecoach stations in the region, supplying provisions to travelers on their way from Tucson to Northern Arizona and California. He named his settlement “Coldwater,” apparently for the river and the cold water that flowed from a local spring.

He also erected a saloon and served as Postmaster of Coldwater from 1901 until 1905 when the post office moved to a site near the Avondale Ranch. The post office soon became known as Avondale although the name “Coldwater” was not discontinued until 1946. The City of Avondale was incorporated at that time, although the Coldwater Store continued to serve the community.

As a young boy, I delivered newspapers for the Phoenix Gazette, the daily afternoon paper that described the Coldwater Mercantile Store as the place where locals could get the news of the day.

Arizona’s response to two world wars also played a significant

role in shaping the West Valley. The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company’s contribution during World War I is an example. At that time, the only known material for the sidewalls of pneumatic tires was extra-long staple cotton, which was grown in Egypt. Such tires were essential for the U.S. Army’s motor vehicles in the European theater.

Paul W. Litchfield, a young Goodyear executive, challenged his staff to find a place stateside where the cotton would grow. The chosen test site was in Gilbert. There Paul Litchfield found a way to cultivate the fiber, called Pima cotton in honor of the Indian tribe that largely farmed the crop. The success prompted Goodyear to buy substantial acreage in the West Valley to grow the cotton needed for the war effort.

Further growth came in 1941 when Goodyear Aircraft was authorized to become a division of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Most of the engineers and managers were moved to the Goodyear plant from Akron, Ohio, and a large number of defense workers came to staff the plant.

Rapid growth required a substantial increase in the amount of food needed both for local communities and the military. The result was that additional migrant labor became urgent.

My older brother Larry, me and my younger brother Kenny at the Grand Canyon.

Happily for me, my mother and father both chose to become educators.

I suspect my mother wanted to be a teacher because it was a popular career for young women. She had grown up in Phoenix and attended Kyrene Elementary School. She went on to Phoenix Union High School. She later graduated from Redlands College (now the University of Redlands) in California and returned to take a teaching position at Kyrene Elementary. This is where she would meet my father.

My father, I suspect, saw education as a way to be gainfully employed in something other than agriculture. As one of the youngest in his family, he had seen his 12 brothers and sisters oscillate between Texas and Arizona during the drought, and in the years leading up to the Great

Depression. It was clearly not a programmed ambition within the family, as he was the only one of his siblings to go to college.

One clue to his decision was the fact that he was an athlete and played football, basketball and baseball at Phoenix Union High School. His fellow athlete and friend, Mutt Ford, encouraged him to go to Arizona State Teachers College (now Arizona State University), where he also played football and baseball. He had earned the money for college by packing cantaloupes every summer in the Valley, Yuma, and the Imperial Valley.

We still have my dad’s catcher’s mitt somewhere!

My brother, Larry Coor, tells a story about our dad playing baseball games against Barry Goldwater when he was a student at UA.

My mom Elnora Witten. Left: Principal Lattie F. Coor, Sr. with his class.

The Early Years

My father completed the required 2-year teaching certificate in 1929. He then took a teaching job at Kyrene School, a near neighbor of Tempe, and returned to college the following year to get his 3rd year teaching certificate.

While teaching at Kyrene, he met my mother, Elnora Witten. The two of them were married in the summer of 1931 at her family home in the citrus grove on Baseline Road in South Phoenix. As mentioned earlier, their land was adjacent to the earliest Japanese Flower Gardens.

As a married couple, they began their teaching careers in Wickenburg at the start of the 1931 school year with my father serving as the “Teaching Principal,” which means he taught the 7th and 8th grades in addition to being the principal of a school that had about 200 students.

My father stayed in that position until 1936, the year I was born, when Ed Ring, the Maricopa County School Superintendent asked him to serve as his assistant. At the end of the summer, Ed Ring suggested that my father apply for the Teaching Principal position at Avondale. He spent the rest of his career there, as did my mother.

My description does not do justice to my parents’ careers. They were educators during the Depression and through all the years of Segregation. In a state like Arizona, with high in-migration rates overall, and a constant inflow of migrant workers to harvest the crops, the challenges were many.

I have always loved South Phoenix and South Mountain.

I visited my Witten grandparents there often as I was growing up. I also hiked South Mountain frequently. When my wife Elva and I decided to move off the ASU campus, we bought a few acres of land on South Mountain and built our dream home. If any of you ever visited us there, you know how spectacular this region of the Valley is, and how beautiful.

A postcard from the iconic Japanese Flower Gardens in Phoenix.

THE CHALLENGE OF EDUCATING THE CHILDREN OF MIGRANT FAMILIES

A significant number of migrant workers and their families began working in California’s Imperial Valley in the summer.

They followed the crops through Somerton and Yuma, continuing to a variety of farms in the Salt River Valley. They would continue on to other farming regions in California. There were difficult challenges for migrant students. The families would work one crop for a month or so before moving on to the next crop, which means their children would have a month or so of school before leaving. As the Teaching Principal of Avondale Elementary School and Superintendent of

the District, my father sought to assist the families in finding housing and hiring teachers who were responsive to the special educational needs of these students.

My father concluded that it was not fair for the migrant students to be deprived of a solid education.

He contacted all the elementary school superintendents from the Imperial Valley to Phoenix and other regions in California, and proposed that the children of migrant labor families take their books home and when the family moved, take the books with them to their next school. When the students completed the course, they could return books to the school they were currently attending. Lamentably, the plan was deemed too complex.

Our father’s effort to provide migrant students with books they could take with them when their family moved was doomed to fail.

Unfortunately, some people found the idea discriminatory. They claimed that my father was picking out one group and not treating them like everyone else. This is one of the programs we worked on that was a failure because we weren’t allowed to “discriminate.” It makes no sense.

Larry Coor Naval Aviator

Lots of cotton was grown in the West Valley.

Russian and Basque families were often raising sheep.

Farmers grew produce of all kinds. You name it, we grew it.

Photos Courtesy of Glendale Arizona Historical Society

Volksie

Migrant labor housing was located near the fields.

THE EARLY YEARS

I first learned about leadership from my dad. My father never saw a youngster he didn’t want to help, especially if the youngster was poor or otherwise disadvantaged.

My father reached out to children from every background, especially in the culturally diverse settings of Kyrene, Wickenburg and Avondale, and he found ways to help everyone.

Segregation was a fact of life until the Brown vs. Board of Education case was ruled on by the Supreme Court in 1954, bringing segregation to an end. In our community, African American students were taught in separate classrooms in a government camp near Dysart Road and Van Buren.

My father found several ways to foster a culturally diverse setting in the schools. In 1940, my father helped a young African American woman who had just earned a degree from ASU. Dad couldn’t hire her as a teacher. It was prohibited by law. But he found a way to hire her as a Shop/Home Economic/ Physical Education instructor.

The woman, Ms. Juanita Favors-Curtis, eventually earned her PhD at ASU. When I came to ASU in 1990, she introduced herself to me at a reception and described how appreciative she was that my father had helped her those many years ago. It was a proud moment for me, as I was not aware of it at the time it happened.

My understanding of leadership would grow significantly over the years — at NAU, Washington University, the Governor’s Office in Michigan, the University of Vermont and with all the great leaders I worked with in Arizona and at ASU.

The government camp Lattie is referring to was a group of metal tents that originally were used to house migrant workers. There were no sanitary facilities.

Later, the population changed to African Americans. The segregation laws made black classrooms separate and they were busing these students to Palo Verde. My father had classrooms built across the street from his Avondale School and made that the Black school. They were the newest and nicest on the campus, not the old military barracks from the German POW Camp at Papago Park. When segregation ended, he was able to bring the students together by mixing up both students and classrooms.

Dad had a pretty good handle on the situation.

Larry Coor Naval Aviator

MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL YEARS WERE MARKED BY SIGNIFICANT WORLD EVENTS

At the time I entered 1st grade in 1942, World War II was center stage in virtually everything we did after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Teachers talked with us about the war, and asked if we knew any people who were in the military. I knew that several in our family were in the war, but none as striking to me at my age as the memory of the casket covered with the American flag for my cousin, Craig Hannum.

First Lt. Craig B. Hannum joined the Arizona National Guard, and was then called for active duty in 1940. He served in the

Infantry and participated in the invasion of Normandy.

Craig was killed in action against the enemy in France on June 7, 1944. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his “extraordinary heroism” leading a counter-offensive when his platoon was pinned down. When their effort failed, he single-handedly crawled to within 50 feet of the enemy and continued the assault. While he died in the attack, he drove the German force out of their stronghold. He is buried in the National Cemetery in San Bruno, CA.

Our uncle Sandy Coor died in 1919 during the 1st World War in France. A Marine, he died of spinal meningitis. He is buried at Resthaven Cemetery in Glendale, and the Glendale VFW Hall is named for him.

Our cousin Chauncey Coor, who spent a great deal of time with us, joined the Navy at the beginning of World War II, and served until 1946. His father Dempsey was in the Navy first, and then re-enlisted in the Army during World War I.

I am also retired military. I was drafted during the Korean War, entered the Navy flight training program and served for 20 years as a Naval Aviator. After retiring, I enjoyed a second career with the State Department.

Larry Coor, Naval aviator

Dempsey Coor and Oran Coor Chauncey Coor Dempsey Coor and Sandy Coor

1st Lt. Craig Hannum

Larry Coor with his Aunt Katie Coor Hiett Cirby in 1963.

THE EARLY YEARS

The early farmers and ranchers of the West Valley were the new entrepreneurs.

THE GROWTH OF AVONDALE AND ITS SCHOOL DISTRICT

The early farmers and ranchers bought or leased enough land, and invested enough labor and resources, to support their own families and the migrant labor families who either came seasonally or ended up settling in the region. These children were the original students at the Avondale School and my father’s responsibility.

After the farmers, ranchers, and the migrant labor families, the next group to arrive were the managers, employees, and families of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Paul Weeks Litchfield founded the company town in 1926 as the

headquarters for their long-staple cotton growing to support the war efforts. The Wigwam Resort was originally built as guest housing for company employees who visited the facilities.

The next large group of new residents came because of the rapidly growing Litchfield Naval Air Facility, established in 1943. These events led to the establishment of the town of Goodyear in 1946. The Avondale School District was asked to expand to include the entire Goodyear school age population.

Rapid student growth during my 2nd and 3rd grade years brings memories of a vivid kaleidoscope of

The Goodyear blimp was a common sight in the Valley. It often transported company executives from their headquarters in Akron, Ohio to the new facility in Litchfield Park.

students from different backgrounds. The increase in students caused a spirited movement to hire additional teachers and support staff. It also required space for the additional classrooms in the mid-1940’s. The problem was solved by acquiring military barracks from the Air Force Base at Marana, near Tucson, which was being closed. A parade of large military trucks hauled sections of the barracks to the Avondale School campus to be reassembled as classrooms.

My father and cousin Chauncey also built our house in Avondale, again using military barracks but now from the German POW camp in Papago Park.

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. AZCentral.com Wigwam Resort. WigwamArizona.com

OTHER MEMORIES FROM MY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL YEARS

During the war years, our teachers talked with us about things we might not be able to buy because they were needed for the pilots, soldiers and sailors in the war. The older students planted Victory Gardens on the school playground so they could take food home to their families.

Our school was small, divided into grades 1-4 and 5-8. Two assemblies were held each year for these two grade levels. I have wonderful memories of my classmates, especially Billy and Jackson Barnett. They were of Creek

Indian heritage. Their mother picked cotton, and they helped her on the weekends.

The family lived in a one-room house across the road from our farm, and I recall their mother displayed their many school awards, printed on brightly colored paper, on the wall of their home. They both went to Northern Arizona College with me and both obtained degrees in higher education. I was able to reconnect with them after they returned to Oklahoma, and we have followed each other’s careers over the years.

I have many memories from my early years and some of the most significant involve the visits I made at an early age to three of the POW camps located in Arizona.

Just before we moved into our Avondale house, Lattie Jr. suddenly started talking. He had a very deep voice. We were on a road trip soon after and stopped for gas. Lattie had just heard his mom and aunt talking about “Sally Sue” and he liked the sound of it. When the man filling the car said, “How are you doing, Butch,” Lattie replied. “I not Butch. I Sally Sue!” The man looked so embarrassed at calling someone’s little girl “Butch.” We did not tell him the truth. After that, if Lattie got out of line, we’d just say “All right, Sally Sue.”

Lattie F. Coor, Sr.

From The Coor Family Book

Lattie Coor Sr. with Victory Garden students.

THE EARLY YEARS

Three significant events occurred in my early school years.

1. Internment of Japanese Americans in Arizona

When I was in 1st grade, I awoke one morning to learn that my classmate, Buddy Eto, and his family were missing — having departed in the middle of the night.

We were among the first to know the family was gone. No one, however, would tell us what had triggered their departure. Months passed before we learned what had happened.

I tried, intermittently, while I was in grade school and high school, to find Buddy, but to no avail.

In response to Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor, 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, including 70,000 American citizens, were forced into relocation and incarceration in concentration camps. Two of the eight Base Camps were in Arizona on reservation land — the Gila River Camp near Coolidge, and the Poston Camp located near the Colorado River, with 30,000 people living there from 1942 to 1946.

Their farm and house were now in the hands of someone else, and Buddy and the rest of the family did not return. However, at my father’s funeral in 1991 at Agua Fria High School in Avondale, Buddy and members of his family attended the service, and we had the pleasure of reconnecting after so many years.

As I commented earlier, the Watanabe family from South Phoenix were also incarcerated. In their case, they spent the war years in the Poston Camp near Yuma. Both the Eto and Watanabe families were U.S. citizens.

Japanese Americans at the Poston Camp in 1942. National Archives

THE EARLY YEARS

2. The Italian Prisoner of War Camp

John (J.O.) Combs, a major business leader in Avondale, was the owner and operator of the Standard Oil station and a member of the Avondale School Board.

I was terrified when Mr. Combs invited me to join him in taking his delivery of heating oil to the Prisoner of War Camp.

In addition to owning the service station, he delivered heating oil to a variety of farms and homes in the West Valley. Located on farmland was a compound for Italian Prisoners who were captured in the U.S military’s operation in Italy and sent to America to work. Very few people knew the prisoners were in the West Valley compound. My fellow students and I, being in the 2nd or 3rd grade, certainly did not know it. In retrospect, I think very few, if any, teachers knew about it.

I knew, however, he was a friend of my parents, and they would think it rude for me not to go, so I said yes. The camp was about 30 minutes from town and appeared to have tents for approximately 40 or 50 people. As we approached the camp, four or five men in fatigues came out to greet Mr. Combs. Since Italian is similar to Spanish, we had an easy tutorial, so much so that my fear melted away.

They came to my side of the truck and invited me out. One of them could speak some words in English and offered to teach me to count 1 to 10 in Italian. Our visit to deliver the fuel went rapidly and I thanked my language tutors, assuming I would not see them again.

On the way home, Mr. Combs said he would need to make another delivery just before Christmas and asked if I would like to join him. I said yes and he chose a date for the return trip the week before Christmas.

The Christmas trip was more comfortable for me, mostly due to my loss of fear. As we arrived at the camp, the same group that had tutored me in Italian invited me to come see a surprise they had made for me. They presented me with a Crèche they had carved from wood and asked that I think of them on Christmas. The whole group, including the guards, John Combs and me, gathered in a circle around a very large bonfire, and we all sang “Adeste Fideles.” There was not a dry eye anywhere in the circle.

As I have reflected on this whole experience, two things struck me: There were no officers in the group — most, if not all, were enlisted soldiers; secondly, virtually all of those in the camp were in their late teens and/or early 20’s and very likely had children my age, making their absence from home particularly painful.

Italian prisoners waiting to be transported to a POW camp in Western Maricopa county. © IWM A 17044

THE EARLY YEARS

3. Visiting a German Luftwaffe Pilot at the Papago Park Prisoner of War Camp

Early in America’s entry into the war in Europe and the conflict with the German enemy, casualties occurred on both sides. Captured prisoners of war were placed in the Prison Camp at Papago Park.

About two years after I visited the ltalian POW Camp, I was invited by Emma von Ronn, a friend of our family, to join her in visiting her brother, Georg von Ronn, a German Luftwaffe pilot. Georg was being held in the Papago Park Prisoner of War encampment along with more than 4,000 German prisoners. Emma was hired in Germany in the mid-1930’s as a full-time live-in nurse, and was brought to Arizona to serve Gene Ely, Publisher of the Westside Enterprise, who was physically unable to move without assistance. His was a weekly newspaper that was eagerly read each week by those seeking news of any local soldiers and sailors.

In school, following the Pledge of Allegiance, our teacher occasionally asked a student to lead the class as follows: “When Der Fuhrer says we are the Master Race, we (tongue out and straight arm salute) right in Der Fuhrer’s face.”

Here again was a very difficult decision for me. Evidence was mounting of the captured, imprisoned or killed American soldiers, and I was being asked to visit one of our enemies.

Nevertheless, I agreed to go. When we arrived and were allowed to have privacy with Georg, he and Emma burst into tears. In retrospect, while I was uncomfortable with their conversation, the fear gave way to a discussion of the hopes for the end of the war and a chance to resume a peacetime life.

It felt as if I was a member of the family even though I didn’t speak German. Georg invited me to visit him and his family in Germany once the war was over. He spoke of Stade, his hometown on the River Elba that flowed from Hamburg to the sea. I thanked him for that invitation, privately doubting that I would see him again. I was wrong.

Left: American guards line up at the German POW Camp at Papago Park.

Right: Prisoners at POW Camp at Papago Park.

Photos Courtesy of Steve Hoza

In the late 1940’s my parents bought a farm at the corner of Dysart Road and Van Buren.

4-H ACTIVITIES

One of my jobs on the farm was to dig up the insidious “Johnson grass” in the irrigation ditch near our house. Our farm was first in line on an irrigation system that delivered water to six other farms downstream. This grass had to be regularly trimmed by hand using a scythe and was not a favorite activity. I asked my father to provide fencing materials which I used to enclose the ditch. I bought male calves from farms who only wanted female calves. I let my cows into the enclosed area where they grazed on the prolific grass, saving myself a lot of hard work and creating an easy way to supplement feeding of the cows.

All of us raised cows to provide food for the family, and I was very proud of the Holstein that I raised and took to the 4-H Show at the Phoenix Coliseum. Sometime after the show, the calf escaped its pen and went into the adjacent field, eating its fill of alfalfa, which is too rich and difficult for cows to digest. As a result, the calf developed "bloat," building up gas in its stomach. Unable to release the pressure, the calf died. I was so affected by the loss that I was unable to eat the meat.

I had many other ideas for making money, such as growing corn and selling it at a stand on our driveway. Occasional flooding of the Agua Fria sent an abundance of water down the riverbed. I recall that the Agua Fria was dry most of the time, given the impoundment in Lake Pleasant. When it did have a flow, the water was usually sufficiently shallow that drivers could ford the river in cars. Sometimes the level of the water was high enough to stall a car, requiring it to be pulled out of the water. Anticipating stranded cars, we would take one of our tractors with a chain, and willing to get into the water up to our knees, we would haul stranded cars out of the riverbed and charge the driver $5 for doing so.

On my first day as President of the University of Vermont, we toured the campus. One of our stops was at the College of Agriculture. When I mentioned that I had grown up on a farm, they wanted to test my skill. So I milked a cow in my best suit.

HIGH SCHOOL

I followed in my dad’s footsteps and was catcher on the baseball team for all four years. I was co-editor of the Litchfield Owl in my senior year, and a member of the “L” Club for three years.

LITCHFIELD HIGH SCHOOL

I attended Litchfield High School because Avondale did not have a high school at that time. There were 33 students in my class. One of our fellow students, Jack Pierce, was afflicted with polio. It was a dreaded disease that was sweeping the country. It was a memorable time for those of us who visited with him regularly as he spent an entire year in an "iron lung." Jack did recover and went on to graduate with our class.

I was Class President for my first three years in high school and Student Body President in my senior year. I achieved Honor Roll and served on Student Council all four years. I was Salutatorian at our graduation in 1954. My classmate, Belen Soto, was Valedictorian and she went on to NAU with me. Years later, I attended the naming of a school in her honor.

I played football all 4 years, and during that time the number of players on the team was increased from 6 to 11. Players’ helmets were large and loose, with a hard cage on the front. I will never forget the feeling of an opponent's helmet hitting my nose and causing it to swell so much, I was teased by my teammates.

Our school played against other small towns throughout Arizona, such as Bagdad, Superior, Gila Bend, Ajo, Parker and Scottsdale.

I recall the football field in Superior being a dirt field, and before the game could begin, players were required to walk the length of the field to clear rocks.

I won the State Oratorical contest in my Senior year and competed at the national contest in Las Vegas.

The school had both a marching band and a dance band, and I participated in all four of my high school years. The band was invited to march in the State Fair in Phoenix, where I played the baritone horn. I also played trumpet in the school band, and we played at dances after home games.

Other organizations were encouraged on campus, and I participated in most of them. But the most important to me was my experience in the Boy Scouts.

IN HIGH SCHOOL, PEOPLE THOUGHT?

I was involved in too many things.

– 1988 INTERVIEW

One of my proudest achievements was obtaining the level of Eagle Scout.

BOY SCOUTS

For me, as a youngster, the Agua Fria River basin offered wonderful opportunities for hiking and on some occasions, a site for our Boy Scout troop’s weekend activity. Another frequent destination was the Sierra Estrellas, the highest mountains in the Valley. In summer, the Scouts traveled to northern Arizona to spend a week at Camp Geronimo, located near Kohl’s Ranch up on the Mogollon Rim outside of Payson. Camp Geronimo remained there until 1959.

Around that time, other properties were purchased for the scout camp and designated R-C One, Two and Three. My belief is that one of these properties was owned by Edd Haught, the oldest son of famous pioneer, Babe Haught. As a youth, Edd joined his father in guiding Zane Grey on bear and lion hunts in this area.

Edd became camp ranger of RC-One in 1945. He was killed in an accident in the early 1950’s and there is a stone memorial recognizing him at the entrance to the camp.

• CORE VALUE •

Edd was a mentor to me and to the scouts of my place and generation. He also exemplified a core value of mine: The importance of the natural environment and our responsibility to take good care of it.

At Edd’s funeral in 1952, I spoke about how much he meant to us and all that we had learned from him.

EDD ROW HAUGHT

OCTOBER 2, 1897

SEPTEMBER 3, 1952

A friend of all mankind, an outstanding woodsman, a most successful hunter, a builder of men through scouting, and a cherished father. He will live on and on in the lives of all who knew him.

Bill Morson

During my high school years, I had not focused on college.

ON TO COLLEGE

There was no pressure from my parents, teachers or others in positions of authority to speak about college. I did pass a college entry exam, so I understood that it was an option. One of my dreams was to travel to Europe. From my various enterprises, I had saved $500 for my dream trip, but as I considered college, I

realized that the money would likely be needed to pay tuition. A gentleman by the name of Louis McDonald came to our school to recruit prospective students for Northern Arizona University.

McDonald’s job was to judge the eligibility of students to receive a Phelps Dodge scholarship. This 4-year scholarship was awarded to two students for each of the three state universities. It was very significant as it provided the funds for tuition, room

and board. I received a scholarship for $500 per year to Arizona State College, (now NAU).

Every year, Phelps Dodge would take all its scholarship recipients to one of their facilities. We went to Ajo, Bisbee, Douglas, and Clifton Morenci. I had the chance to meet many of my future classmates and that’s when I began thinking about a law degree and possibly a political career.

YES, YOU CAN TRAVEL EUROPE ON $500 (with a little help)

With my tuition covered, the $500 I had saved enabled me to take a three-month pauper's trip with my friend, Wheezer Veazey. We started by riding with a classmate traveling home to Pennsylvania. From there we took the train and then booked passage on a student ship out of Montreal to Paris via Le Havre and began a counter-clockwise trip around Europe.

We stayed in youth hostels in France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Sweden and Denmark. We learned basic survival skills (like dry oatmeal followed by a large amount of water), and there were many kind strangers along the way who helped us keep going.

When we got to Hamburg I recalled Georg von Ronn's invitation, thirteen years prior in the German POW camp in Papago Park. He invited me to visit the von Ronn family in Stade on the Elba River when I got to Europe. Wheezer and I were not very presentable, nor did we know exactly where to find

In Stade, Germany, I found Georg von Ronn’s store and we recognized each other immediately.

Georg, but we made our way to Stade anyway. When we arrived and asked where von Ronn's store was located, we were given the address. I doubted Georg would remember me, but the moment we entered the store, we recognized each other. Georg told us that the store had been in his family since the 15th century. When he asked how our travels were going and he heard how we were barely making it, he insisted we stay with him and his family for a few days.

We did so with great pleasure. It was a wonderful trip. But now it was time for college.

There are two places in Arizona that offer the kind of sylvan setting that I wanted in my life.

WHY PRESCOTT AND NAU CAMPUS

They’re both so beautiful. It is always difficult to generalize the forces that influence you, and the features that had the most enduring impact. First, the campus was small. I come from a small community. To me, the larger schools in Phoenix and Tucson had a certain quality, intimidating particularly for people from small communities who were used to the kind of personal relationships that have been fostered for years in rural Arizona.

The old town square in Prescott is among the loveliest places in Arizona.

I believe the student body in Flagstaff was about 800 my first year and no more than 1,200 four years later when I graduated. This meant several things: First, we knew almost everyone. I did because I was politically active, but I don’t think that was atypical, and those who were here came from small towns: the ranch country, the reservations, some from Phoenix and Tucson, but from such an array of backgrounds that once here, we quickly expanded our friendships. At the same time, we gained an understanding of the diversity and richness of the state.

I had among my friends Hopi and Navajo as naturally as if they had always been my next-door neighbors. Hispanics from throughout the state came to Flagstaff, primarily from some of the smaller communities — Globe, Miami, Morenci, Ajo. It never occurred to me that they were ethnic minorities in any way. We were all a natural part of the campus.

The Mormon students were a new experience for me. They also were a natural part of the campus. The discussions not only heightened one’s own understanding of one’s beliefs, but created a firm grasp of the value of attachment to place, to the culture, and to the value of the inclusiveness that was here.

NAU campus. Thomas Trompeter

Prescott Courthouse. © Breewolf Photography

A LESSON FOR LIFE

While I don’t know precisely, I would guess that ethnic and cultural inclusiveness were much greater at NAU, relative to our total size, than at Arizona State or the UA, and probably elsewhere in the country. It seemed natural to cherish our shared heritage.

I found the time in Flagstaff to pursue the personal interest I had always had in the natural environment. I would go out to Wupatki, Sunset Crater, the Grand Canyon, or tracking into Sycamore Canyon, in ways that I not only did alone, but also with faculty and other

The Snow Bowl was just opening, and it only had a rope tow. I joined the ski team and traveled to other states to compete. One of our responsibilities was to clear the ski runs. We had parties at Schultz Pass, ice skated on Lake Mary, and drove cars out onto the ice.

The faculty at NAU encouraged us to be outdoors. I remember Harvey Butchart hiking with us on the peaks and Agnes Allen taking students off on treks. It was a way to strengthen and reinforce an attachment to place, an attachment to the land and to the state’s culture.

• CORE VALUE •

After my experience at NAU, one of my major goals throughout the rest of my career was to ensure that inclusiveness is built into the university experience. I wanted more students to have the same kind of experience that I had gained. That experience expanded beyond the natural physical environment to appreciate the culture that develops within it — the people and a better understanding of what they value. That appreciation comes from my experiences at NAU.

Skiing is my favorite sport and, yes, I was on the ski team — there I am on the far right.

KEY INFLUENCES

I found a group of professors so exciting (and so excited about what they were doing) that the same excitement was ignited in me. This is what college should be about.

KEY INFLUENCES

What I learned quickly at NAU was that young people can be inspired by coming into direct contact with remarkable teachers. There were five or six people on the faculty who ignited, intellectually, an interest in me that I had previously not known. These professors created a fusion that joined my interest in leadership roles with my interest in developing the academic and intellectual depth I sought to bring to leadership.

constraints that exist within it for so many people. Ed made me realize the power of teaching and research, with the capacity of the human mind to improve society.

I was very active in student government, serving as class president my first two years and as student body president my last two years. I was planning to go to law school and wanted a teaching degree as a backup. Instead, I was captivated in a “burning bush” moment in a sophomore class being taught by Professor Ed Walker. He took a personal interest in me, and I became one of “Ed’s Boys.” He helped each of us to understand what it means to be an academic. Ed had become a grade school principal at age 18, and later served on the NAU faculty in Sociology. I grew up in the relatively open society of Arizona, and I had never really thought about how society is stratified and the

Other faculty members ignited my interest in both science and history. There were very few students in my class not pursuing a degree in education. While I couldn’t major in political science, I could get a degree in social science. I knew I could do my graduate work in political science. I also did student teaching and got a teaching certificate to keep my options open.

Abstracted from Lattie's interview with NAU President Emeritus Lawrence Walkup in his book, "Voices of the Campus." 1984.

I served two years as class president and two years as Student Body President.

Miller and roomate Lattie Coor

J. Lawrence Walkup

Burt

at their 50th college reunion.

Ed Walker

SUMMERTIME 1957

One of my goals during college was to travel to Mexico for a six-week immersive course in Spanish. It happened in the summer before my final year at NAU.

I did whatever I could for several years to save enough money — chopping cotton, operating a tractor/combine harvesting the fields from Buckeye to Tolleson. I even applied for a brakeman job on the Acheson Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad but didn’t get it. Fortunately, I was able to save enough for the trip.

I lived in Mexico City with a friend’s expatriate family. I took day courses for gringos, but I learned mostly to speak “pocho,” which is not proper Spanish. In Mexico City, there was a large area where locals gathered to eat, drink, socialize and listen to music. There were some Communists there at the time, and often debates would be going on and we would hear shouts of “Viva Castro.”

I drove to Mexico City in my old Studebaker with a few friends. After crossing the border, we came to a river with no bridge. The only way forward was to drive on railroad tracks, and the only way to do that was to bribe the locals who guarded the road. We paid for our way with packs of cigarettes.

On the eve of our return to the U.S., we spent the night in a border town where there was to be a market the next morning. Local farmers would bring their animals and had to house them for the night. We stayed in the upstairs room with the animals below us.

During the night, the 1957 Guerrero earthquake hit with a magnitude of 7.6 M. It shook the building so hard that it sent our metal beds sliding across the cement floor. One of the walls of the room collapsed and roof tiles rained down on our heads as we tried to get out. Fortunately, we escaped uninjured.

Photo Beto Victor Segura Garcia

Itza Villavincencio Urbieta

My cousin Chauncey and wife Cleo Coor KEY

In their family history, my cousins Chauncey and Cleo Coor describe a set of characteristics they believe apply to the entire Coor clan. The description certainly describes Chauncey.

Ambition

“Almost to a person, the Coors are extremely ambitious people, and work to bring this ambition to fruition.”

Leaders

“Not only are Coors willing to go the extra mile, they are constantly searching for it.”

Honesty

“Coors try to give of their best, not cheating anyone, and helping others along the way.”

Outdoor People

“A group of Coors can hardly be together fifteen minutes before the talk turns to fishing, hunting, hiking, skiing, or some other outdoor activity. Many are involved in environmental causes, believing we are stewards of this earth.”

Hospitality

“Most Coors have never met a stranger.”

THREE PATHS TO THE FUTURE

Maybe the best approach would be to simply tell you a bit about the three career paths that I seriously considered when I was at NAU. I decided with the help of people there, especially Ed Walker, to try each one of them.

That’s a luxury few of us have. If someone chooses to study medicine, by the time they are in the clinics, there is such a commitment they can’t then go back and say, ‘Well, maybe I would like to be a lawyer.” I chose consciously, based on the things I thought I would most like to do, to try each one of them.

My interest in politics had been growing for a long time, and was one in which I thought that I might have more than a passing interest.

n One very strong interest was in either elective or appointive government service. And, frankly, it was the option that was of greatest interest to me at the outset.

I had been active as a student leader here at NAU, and also in high school. I had also been quite active politically at NAU, discreetly I think, in both gubernatorial and congressional campaigns in Arizona. I didn’t feel it appropriate for the college’s name or the student association’s name to be associated with a political campaign.

I was also becoming increasingly interested in an academic future.

n My second option was becoming faculty at the university level — as a full-time academic teacher and scholar.

n The third was as a university or college administrator.

I had already decided where I wanted to apply, and every one of the universities was in the West. That was in an era, by the way, when “back East” meant anything east of Albuquerque. And while I don’t think we were overly parochial, we just didn’t think about it.

NAU Vice President Virgil Gillenwater with Lattie Coor Sr., Elnora Coor and Lattie Coor Jr. on Mom and Dad’s Day at NAU 1957.

I spent the next 18 years in St. Louis as a graduate student and then a member of the faculty of Washington University.

When Ed Walker described a Teaching Assistant position at Washington University, I decided to explore it. Ed believed that given the career options I was considering, I needed to fill in some gaps in my preparation to date given NAU’s focus at that time on being a teacher preparation institution.

It turned out to be an absolutely splendid choice for me. I received a graduate teaching assistantship, which was helpful as it provided my tuition and a modest stipend I could live with.

But first, I had to get there. I placed an ad in The Arizona Republic seeking a traveling companion to help pay for gas. I was successful in recruiting someone, and we made the trip in two days, arriving in St. Louis in the early morning hours. I made my way to the Washington University campus, in awe of the Great Park where the World’s Fair had taken place fifty years before.

I had two days to develop my lectures and decide on my course of study, but I was able to adequately prepare for the next phase of my education.

I couldn’t do anything else until the campus opened later, so I parked my car and slept. Later I found the Admissions Office and introduced myself to the clerk, explaining that I was to be a teaching assistant, but had just arrived in town with no place to stay. She kindly directed me to a nearby apartment where current graduate students were housed. There was no room, but I convinced the other students to let me sleep in the hallway!

Art Wager

JByard

MY FIRST YEARS AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

I was fortunate. The Chairman of the Department in my field, Political Science, was the one who recruited me in the first place.

His name was Tom Eliot, the grandson of the great Charles W. Eliot of Harvard, and he had himself grown up in the Harvard environment and in the Congress. Tom had been a young lawyer with Francis Perkins in the New Deal when the Social Security Act was written. He then went on to an academic career and later became the Chancellor of Washington University.

Chancellor Thomas Eliot speaks with a student during a campus protest in 1968.

Washington University Archives

Obviously, lots of people will be talking to you about Lattie’s intellectual depth. And they’re right. By their academic training, PhDs have a great depth of knowledge in their field.

At this time, I also needed to choose the subject of my Master’s Thesis — in my case, I was interested in the Soviet Union and what happened in Russia following the Russian Revolution. I wanted to study the policies and controls that Stalin attempted after he won the power struggle with Trotsky after Lenin died.

Stalin’s goal with the Kolkhoz movement was to divest the peasantry of their capacity for individual agricultural production and place them in a system of communal production where planning and control would be centrally administered. My thesis was about why he failed.

I would like to talk about the breadth of Lattie’s understanding of so many topics.

As an example, my wife and I went on a trip with Lattie and Elva to St. Petersburg, Russia. We had planned this trip together for six months.

On the second or third day, we went to see the Tsar’s summer home, and it was magnificent. Lattie started to talk about Russia’s history, and the purpose of the summer home. I asked him how he knew all this, and he explained that his Master’s degree in Political Science focused on Russian history. He had never said anything about it before that day. And I’ve known him for decades.

Over the years of too many dinners and black-tie events, I can’t remember one time when Lattie didn’t know more about the topic than anyone else — a true lifelong learner.

Bill Post, Chairman and CEO (ret.), Pinnacle West Capital Corp., Board Member, Center for the Future of Arizona

Joseph Stalin

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

I needed to do field work — interview the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the Chairman of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee, and I needed to be in Michigan for a month or two.

A SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY

I completed my Master’s degree in 1960 and began work on my PhD. After I had done all my coursework for the doctorate, taken my comprehensives, passed one of the two language tests I needed at that time for a doctorate, another opportunity emerged.

I was now a Research Assistant at Washington University and my responsibilities included working on a topic of benefit to the faculty. Tom Eliot and some very good people from the Maxwell School in Syracuse had received a major grant from the Carnegie Foundation to do a study on how Michigan, Missouri, and Indiana handled education issues. I was assigned to study Michigan.

Initially I was not successful in getting anyone in Michigan to respond to my inquiries or requests for interviews. Time was running out, so I went to a faculty member for help, asking for a plane ticket to travel to Michigan for a week, which I was granted.

This work allowed me to test one of my major career options — either an elective or administrative position in government.

I arrived on a Tuesday evening in February, found a hotel room and walked to the Capitol Building. All the lights were on, so I entered and walked up to the second floor where the House, Senate and Governor's chambers were located. No one was around, not even guards.

Approaching the Governor's office, I heard voices, so I went inside the office and followed the sounds until I reached a long room with a desk at the far end. There was a man sitting at the desk talking with two secretaries.

Just as I realized he was the Governor, I turned to leave, but he motioned to me to enter and asked what I was doing there. I explained my errand and he seemed interested, telling me he appreciated my resourcefulness, and he offered me a job on the spot. Three days later, I had an office next to the Governor’s.

Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing.

Hal Bergman

Michigan Governor John Swainson

The 14 months I spent working with Governor Swainson were very valuable. He was one of the few public officials to have served in the legislative, executive, and later judicial branches of state government.

After completing my research in Michigan, I returned to St. Louis in June and finished my work for the Washington University study on how the three states were handling their education issues.

I then took my draft report on education policy back to Governor Swainson. He was impressed and asked me to fill another spot on his staff. His administrative assistant had just left to work in Washington, and he wanted me to become his

administrative assistant. I got clearance from Washington University to temporarily leave the program and I spent the next 14 months working for John.

Governor John Swainson was a war hero, injured in the Battle of the Bulge and a double amputee. But he had learned to walk again with no assistance. When I met him, he was 32 years old, and I was just 23. In addition to my administrative assistant responsibilities, I got involved in John’s

After John was defeated by George Romney, there were opportunities for me to consider both a Senate run and a position in Washington but by this time I was far more interested in university life.

reelection campaign and I was responsible for northern Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. Three or four afternoons a week we would take a small plane and make our way through the small magical towns up north.

I had the opportunity to work at a high administrative level and came to understand how important the leadership structure is to achieving goals. Leaders need the right combination of skills, and those skills have to be managed. I also got to experience what it’s like to be part of a gubernatorial election – the pace, the issues, and the need to connect with people quickly.

While I enjoyed the experience, what it taught me was that I was far more interested in pursuing a university career. It was incredibly valuable to learn that at such a young age.

Governor Swainson's reelection campaign brought many prominent Democrats to Michigan, including Senator John F. Kennedy. Wikipedia

Fortunately for me, Tom Eliot, the former department chair for Political Science, was now the Chancellor of Washington University.

He offered me a half-time job as his assistant while I finished my dissertation on “The Increasing Vulnerability of the American Governor.”

There was a period over several decades when American governors were being defeated at abnormally high rates when they ran for reelection. My hypothesis was that they were expected to do a lot more than they had the capacity to do, either financially or legally. People expected them to solve problems that they could not.

Until Ronald Reagan, governors were no longer

even considered as candidates for president. My study covered about 50 years of gubernatorial reelections, but my primary interest was in the role of the President and Congress, and the evolving nature of those two institutions.

I finished my PhD in 1964 and was recruited to the faculty as an Assistant Professor. I was given other part-time responsibilities in the graduate school while students were being drafted into the Vietnam War. Many anti-war protestors wanted to stay in school, and I was involved in helping them

I became convinced that our involvement in Vietnam was wrong and I did join, not with the radical elements, but in the electoral process with those who were supporting candidates opposed to Mr. Johnson’s re-election.

try to stay. Sadly, I recall some students coming to me asking how they could injure themselves to be ineligible for the draft. These students were already under intense pressure that only increased during wartime.

At this time, Washington University was a high quality, largely unrecognized private university.

While its medical school was known worldwide, it was still primarily a local undergraduate and graduate student body. In the 10- year perioud during 50s-60s, it went from 80% of its undergraduate students coming from a 50mile radius to 20%. It moved to a national student body.

I was able to be a part of that in the early stages. While it was atypical to take a faculty position where you received your PhD, I had decided to stay at Washington University because I recognized that I would likely gravitate to administration and that’s what happened.

When I was 32, Tom Eliot asked me to be Vice Chancellor of Washington University. I was responsible for all the professional schools on the hilltop Campus — Law, Engineering, Social Work, Business, etc. I was also managing the major non-academic and non-business functions — Student Affairs, Campus Life, Campus

Police, etc. I took the job in the midst of the civil rights movement and Vietnam war protests. My position translated very quickly into being Vice Chancellor in charge of trouble, and I stayed seven years. Campus riots became so severe that the ROTC building on campus was burned to the ground. It was my job to stop things from getting out of hand. Bob Virgil, Dean of the Business School, put together a team to handle the vandalism on campus. But I was also a young faculty member, and I felt strongly supportive of the civil rights movement. I became deeply involved in a very constructive program to identify, recruit and help prepare more minority youngsters. Coming from a small town in Arizona into these tumultuous circumstances was one of the most valuable learning experiences for me, and it would serve me well years later in knowing how to handle campus unrest.

A Short Biography of an Extraordinary Man

Thomas H. Eliot was born in 1907, the grandson of Harvard University President Charles W. Eliot. Tom's family were co-founders of Harvard University and he received both his Bachelor’s and Law degrees there.

Tom was a lawyer, politician, and academic. He was an ardent supporter of FDR's "New Deal" and helped draft the Social Security Act in the 1930's. During World War II, Tom served as assistant to Ambassador Joe Kennedy in Great Britain.

He came to Washington University in 1952 as a professor of Political Science and served as Chancellor of the University from 1962 to 1971.

Tom was my mentor at Washington University and the University of Vermont. He lived an extraordinary life.

Student Ray West urges his fellow students to strike during a rally on May 11, 1970. Lou Phillips/St Louis Post Dispatch/Polaris

Firefighters outside the blaze at the ROTC building in May of 1970. Lynn T. Spence/St Louis Post Dispatch/Polaris

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

A CHANGING OF THE GUARD

In 1971, Tom Eliot retired as Chancellor. After his retirement, I kept in constant correspondence with him over the years regarding university operations at both Washington University and, later, the University of Vermont, often seeking his advice and keeping him abreast of important developments. I highly valued his mentorship and friendship. In 1990, Tom came to Arizona to attend my inauguration at ASU. Tom passed away the

To soar the entire length of the U.S. and Canadian Rockies in a glider.

next year at the age of 84.

A fellow Vice Chancellor whom I had the highest regard for, Bill Danforth, was named Chancellor. Bill had been Vice Chancellor of the Medical campus which covered seven city blocks on a large park in St. Louis. I served five years as Vice Chancellor with him. Bill was a giant in my opinion, and had a tremendous career.

I very much enjoyed what I was doing as Vice Chancellor, but I was already beginning to think, wouldn't it be interesting if, having watched what we did to transform Washington University into a highly visible

competitive place, there might be another place or two ready to take a big step forward.

By that time, I had been at Washington University for 18 years. As often happens in these jobs, I was beginning to be approached by other universities to consider a presidency, and so I talked with some and began exploring different options. I was still young, but I was nearing my 40's, and I decided that sometime within the next few years I would be interested in being a university president.

– 1988 INTERVIEW

One bright clear Saturday afternoon this past summer, Washington University’s Vice Chancellor was comfortably seated, listening to a radio broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera’s performance of “La Traviata.”

On that day, Lattie Coor was seated approximately 3000 ft. over western Illinois. His seat was the snug cockpit of a glider. “Soaring is the ideal way to relax, to gain perspective,” he advises. “Soaring is like skiing or sailing alone. It is

not a team sport,” he adds.

“It is the ultimate in elegant detachment.”

Reprinted from Washington University Magazine, 1974 SECRET AMBITION?

IWelcome to Vermont

I was contacted by the search committee for the Presidency of the University of Vermont in 1976, which absolutely captivated me.

magine being recruited by UVM, which was founded as a private University in 1791 and is the 5th oldest in New England. Only Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Brown are older. Its beautiful campus overlooking Lake Champlain was requisitioned by the U.S. Army to house the American troops in the War of 1812. A lot of that war took place right down on Lake Champlain. Another important part of UVM’s history concerns the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, which established the nation’s first public universities.

Former Vermont Senator Justin Smith Morrill authored the bill and led the effort to get it passed by Congress in 1862. Once the legislation passed, Senator Morrill moved quickly to establish the Vermont Agricultural College as a public land-grant research university.

The Morrill legislation made it possible to establish at least one college in every state that was “accessible to all, but especially to the sons of toil.” This statement expresses Morrill’s vision of true democracy in higher education. The goal was to give

people from all circumstances the opportunity to gain the training they needed for a successful career. What was most intriguing to me about Vermont is that it had the profile of a major public land-grant research university — a College of Agriculture, a College of Medicine, Schools of Engineering, Education and Business. And yet it had the ethos of a small liberal arts college. The challenge was to blend those in ways that reinforced one another.

Denis Tangney Jr.

THE

BUILDING A NEW ADMINISTRATION

While I was captivated by UVM’s unique history, I could see that the university was underperforming in terms of what it could be as the nation’s first land-grant university. It had all the components and potential to become something quite special. The idea was irresistible to me when the Board of Trustees asked me to become the University’s 21st president in 1976.

I had three children by then — W. Kendall, Colin, and Farryl — and knew Vermont would be a wonderful place for them to grow up. I served as President of the University of Vermont for the next 13-1/2 years. There were lots of challenges, but also some very good results.

I was able to bring in my long-time mentor and friend, Tom Eliot, the former Chancellor of Washington University as my chief academic advisor.

One of my first priorities was to stabilize the presidency rapidly as its top two administrative people had left. For the financial side, I recruited Carl W. Janke, who served as chief financial officer for many years at Harvard, but was also a 1933 graduate of UVM. For the academics, I was able to bring in my long-time mentor and friend, Tom Eliot, the former Chancellor of Washington University as my chief academic advisor. Tom understood the immense potential of Washington University and elevated it to national recognition. I saw the same potential at UVM. So did Ben Forsyth, a faculty member of the UVM College of Medicine. I convinced him to spend part of his time working with us on a broad range of issues.

The Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 transformed higher education in America, ensuring that it was accessible to everyone throughout the nation.

By providing people with advanced training in key employment areas — agriculture, medicine, mechanics and engineering as well as other fields, the land-grants helped to establish a growing middle class.

I was at the University of Vermont for five or six years before Lattie became its new president. As faculty in the College of Medicine, I was well acquainted with the University’s turmoil in both academics and administration.

When I came to UVM, it was not known or recognized nationally. It became a public university starting in 1955 when it merged with the land-grant Agriculture college.

As I look back, UVM was unique. It was small and there were very few people in administration, so you had to be a team player. That was Lattie’s skill. It was a personal trait, not learned, and was the basis of his success.

Dr. Ben Forsyth

Senior Vice

President, University of Vermont

Justin Smith Morrill

UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

THE

I needed to get to know the people of Vermont.

IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS

I made day visits to the counties, usually accompanied by a state representative, an alum from the county I was visiting, or a business leader in the local community. I wanted to travel with someone people knew and trusted in each area.

The goal was to understand how people felt about the value of the University. I also wanted to understand how we could better support each county in terms of its educational and economic goals. After all, I wasn’t the president of the University of Burlington, but the University of Vermont. My perspective is always looking both statewide and nationally.

Speaking at a UVM student function.

Vermont by the numbers

n As a state, Vermont is both small and poor, 47th in per capita income at the time I arrived.

So there was no way the state could support a university of the quality and nature of UVM in conventional dollar terms. In fact, when I first arrived to assume the presidency, only 18% of its budget came from the state. It was only about 10% when I left, and it’s less now.

n About 60% of the students came from out of state, and they came as private university students paying private tuition levels of $20,000 to $25,000 a year in tuition.

The students came largely from private prep schools, the most competitive in the country. The Vermont students were fortunate in that the state has a good school system — in fact, 70% of them still taught Latin as it was part of the classic legacy.

I found it very appealing to try and blend these two distinct groups in the student body. The only other university with this kind of blend is Cornell, and even it’s different because it’s so much larger and better funded given it is supported by state dollars in New York, not Vermont. So that’s what we set out to do.

And I say with great pride, we did it.

UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

UVM’s FIRST CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

The first challenge was to increase our funding. While we had a philanthropy program at UVM with a significant endowment, especially for the medical school, it needed to expand to a national focus. My experience at Washington University, an affluent private school, was helpful. We hired the firm of Barnes & Roche to do a feasibility study and the results were helpful. They clarified our staffing needs and validated our fundraising potential. One of the challenges was that while previous administrations had increased student enrollment, there had been no improvements in the university’s infrastructure. There was a lot that needed to be done – buildings, the library, academic facilities. We also needed to increase research funding and recruit top faculty and students if we were going to elevate UVM’s reputation from a small regional university to national status.

The other big challenge was to significantly increase the East Coast’s recognition of UVM’s academic reputation. We focused on both goals simultaneously and succeeded.

When I think back over the years of Lattie’s presidency of UVM, two things immediately come to mind.

Lattie launched the first capital campaign in UVM’s history. The goal was $100 million. It included a $20 million federal earmark, and the rest was raised mostly out of state, some coming from alumni and parents. Lattie is a natural fundraiser, and the campaign was successful.

Richard Moll, a Yale admissions officer, coined the term “The Public Ivys” in 1985 when he published a list of eight universities that provided a collegiate experience on the level of the Ivy League universities.

His list includes: College of William and Mary, Miami University in Ohio, the UC system.

University of Michigan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia in Charlottesville, and the UNIVERSTY OF VERMONT.

While there have been many such lists since 1985, none were as influential as this one.

Dr. Ben Forsyth, Senior Vice President, University of Vermont

Vermont is a wonderful place to live. Not only is it beautiful, with a rich history, but it offers a wealth of recreational experiences, and I enjoyed all of them with my children and friends.

“Under Lattie’s leadership, the University of Vermont went from a very good state university to one recognized nationally as a Public Ivy. That achievement, and others, moved Lattie’s reputation from that of a vice chancellor at Washington University to a nationally recognized leader in higher education.”

– DR. BEN FORSYTH

THE 10-YEAR CYCLE

I’m a great believer in cycles for universities and cycles for individuals. There’s no absolute, but a cycle in a university is more commonly a 10-year cycle. The momentum, the shaping, the movement, the energy that happens tends to be framed in that way. Personally, I find now that I’ve had a chance to experience it in three different settings, that I function in that kind of cycle as well. I thought it was time for me to leave UVM, but I wasn’t thinking about another university presidency.

I had already begun forming the elements of a technology transfer group with some UVM colleagues. This group included a nuclear physicist I had recruited from Ohio State who had served for 10 years as Provost at UVM and had gone back to the faculty; a senior Vice President who was an infectious disease specialist as well as the former associate Dean of the medical school; and the chairs of three departments — Physiology, Biophysics and Obstetrics/Gynecology.

We made plans to join together as a research technology transfer corporation with the major IBM facility in Vermont. IBM had 12,000 employees there, so it was a big endeavor. We joined forces with the head of IBM-Burlington, formerly head of IBM Germany and a German National who had become an American citizen.

We were all thinking we’d put that endeavor together and were looking for some capital to make it happen.

Things didn’t turn out that way.

MOST RECENT ACCOMPLISHMENT?

Cycling 60 miles.

– 1988 INTERVIEW

THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

Lattie Coor at commencement.

VERMONT

To be honest, I had never thought about moving back to Arizona. THE UNIVERSITY OF

SUDDENLY, AN UNEXPECTED OPPORTUNITY

To be honest, I had never thought about moving back to Arizona. I had lived over 30 years in Missouri and Vermont. It’s not that I didn’t still have connections in Arizona. I did, and returned several times a year to visit with my parents, relatives and friends. I also went back to ski in Flagstaff.

When I received a letter from a search firm, Heidrick and Struggles, I was surprised. I had known Bill Bowen, the firm’s representative, for years.

While I knew ASU when I lived in Arizona, I had not followed its growth. I turned down the interest shown by the Arizona Board of Regents several times before my close colleague at UVM, Ben Forsyth, encouraged me to at least meet with them. At this time, he knew much more about ASU and UA than I did.

“If I were asked why Lattie went to ASU, it was because Herman was so persistent,

Ben knew UA fairly well because of its medical school. He had interned with the Head of the Department of Medicine earlier in his career and was also a candidate for dean at one time.

He thought UA spent more time worrying about its position in the state rather than having a national perspective and reputation. According to Ben, ASU didn’t know its own value.

The ASU Presidential Search Committee

Herman Chanen

PRESIDENT, ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS

Esther Capin

ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS

Jack Pfister

ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS

Kristin Valentine

ASU FACULTY SENATE CHAIR

Joochul Kim

ASSOCIATE CHAIR, DEPT. OF PLANNING

Albert McHenry

CHAIR, PROFESSOR OF ELECTRONICS

Marybeth Stearns

ASU REGENTS PROFESSOR

Brian Foster

DEAN OF GRADUATE COLLEGE

John Fees

PRESIDENT, ASASU

Budd Peabody

PAST CHAIRMAN, ASU FOUNDATION

José Cárdenas

ATTORNEY, LEWIS & ROCA

Donald Kirkman

VALLEY NATIONAL BANK

Tandy Young

Herman Chanen and Lattie Coor.

CHAIR, ARIZONA CIVIL RIGHTS ADVISORY COUNCIL

Molly Broad

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CEO, ARIZONA BOARD OF REGENTS

This was when I realized that my children were growing up.

A SPECIAL SUMMER – 1988

My children knew Arizona through visiting their grandparents and other relatives from the occasional visits we would make, but they didn’t know the Arizona where I had grown up. I wanted them to have it as part of their life.

It was a wonderful experience. As a result, my children had this fresh, vivid picture of the Arizona I love.

We loaded up all our camping gear and shipped everything we would need. Then we rented a four-wheel drive vehicle at Phoenix Sky Harbor and spent almost three weeks traversing the state. We started at the Apache Nation in the White Mountains. We went to Lake Powell, the Grand Canyon and Slide Rock. We visited some classmates of mine on the Navajo and Hopi nations.

Back home, I told my children that ASU had asked me if I would consider becoming a candidate for president. I had met with them once in Boston and been approached by the Regents several other times but declined the invitation. Somewhat to my surprise, my daughter, still in high school, encouraged me to consider it.

I reflected on how my children felt and agreed to come out for a visit. Molly Broad,

ABOR’s Executive Director, held a small dinner for me. Governor Rose Mofford was at the dinner. I had never met her before but knew who she was, and I thought it was important to understand her goals for Arizona.

Immediately, Rose said, “I was just talking with Chauncey yesterday.” Please know that Chauncey is my cousin who spent so much time with us when I was growing up. After he retired from his career as a school superintendent, Chauncey became the mayor of Goodyear for 20 years.

Rose then went on to tell me that her brother Jim had been partnered with my uncle Hance when both were on the Arizona Highway Patrol. Rose and I quickly became friends.

BEST VACATION EVER TAKEN? A camping trip with my children across the Navajo and Hopi Nations in Arizona.

– 1988 INTERVIEW

Rose Mofford already knew my cousin and uncle. We became friends very quickly.

THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

Before I tell the story of my life at ASU, I want to mention that I returned to the University of Vermont in 1991 to attend its Bicentennial.

FINAL VISIT TO UVM

This visit was very gratifying as the university awarded me an Honorary Degree and in 1993, the Board of Trustees passed a resolution giving the Administration Building for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences my name. These were both incredible honors and I cherish them.

“Lattie

Coor was

one of the

most influential presidents in UVM’s history. During his tenure, he advanced the university to a national prominence it still enjoys.”

– ROBERT CIOFFI, UVM BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIR

The Lattie Coor Administration Building for Liberal Arts & Sciences.

“Lattie Coor was one of the most influential presidents in UVM’s history,” said Board of Trustees Chair Robert Cioffi. “During his tenure, he advanced the university to a national prominence it still enjoys. He was also a friend and mentor to many members of the UVM community. On a personal note, he was a tremendous influence on me during my time here as a student, and I know countless

others who have the same feeling.”

“In helping UVM achieve the status of a Public Ivy, UVM president Tom Sullivan said, “Lattie Coor burnished the University’s reputation for decades to come and laid the groundwork for much of the work we’re doing today. It is a great pleasure to have him back on campus and honor him for his many achievements.”

The University also created the Coor Collaborative Fellowships in 1992. They were established to encourage innovation and excellence in humanities teaching and research, with a special emphasis on multi-disciplinary initiatives.

My response to all these kindnesses was heartfelt:

“I deeply appreciate this honor. It affirms my strong bond with UVM. Working together as a team, we were able to advance the quality and reputation of this extraordinary academic community, enhancing its long and illustrious tradition as we did so.

I salute President Sullivan and the UVM community for continuing to take this university to even greater heights as one of the nation’s top institutions of higher learning.”

THE

I truly enjoyed my tenure at the University of Vermont. There were many challenges, but there were also great rewards. One of them was simply the long history of the University and you can feel it in the buildings.

I'M MOST PROUD OF:

My children

– 1988 INTERVIEW

When I resigned as president of UVM, they gifted me with a wonderful horse to take home to Arizona.

Colin Coor, W. Kendall Coor and Farryl Coor Bertmann in front of the President’s House at the University of Vermont.

UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT

The president's house at UVM

Reconnecting With Arizona

My visit was an interesting mixture of reconnecting with Arizona while getting a clear sense that ASU had such extraordinary potential.

That feeling only deepened over the next couple of months as I continued visiting Arizona, getting to know old friends and colleagues, and meeting lots of new ones.

First, ASU was already far better than its reputation, but the larger community did not understand the treasure that it had. I think even the larger academic community did not understand how significantly ASU had evolved in its quality and nature.

Several things began to influence my decision about assuming the presidency of ASU.

Secondly, ASU was then and remains today the most attractive public university franchise in America. And that’s because the university is in one of the great new cities of America.

St. Louis, which is now smaller than Phoenix, had 34 colleges and universities. Vermont, with a population of only a half million people, had 22 or 23 colleges and universities. ASU and Greater Phoenix are unique.

These two realizations led to a series of conversations that helped me treasure my years in Vermont but look forward to a totally different experience, with a new set of challenges. It was intriguing.

Ken Canning

I had the pleasure of serving on the presidential search committee that recruited Lattie Coor. One thing that really struck me during the search was hearing what Clark Kerr had to say. He was the first Chancellor of UC Berkeley and later the 12th President of the UC system.

Quite simply, Kerr said that Lattie Coor was the best presidential candidate in the country. He had a tremendous reputation for establishing the University of Vermont as one of the nation’s “Public Ivy’s.” He moved it forward academically and financially working with faculty, staff and the Vermont Legislature.

To this day, I have never seen anyone as effective as Lattie in working a room of people. Lattie could talk, even briefly, to every person and each one felt they were the focus of his attention. And they were. To be effective, you must move quickly and reach everyone.

What a bonus it was that Lattie grew up in Arizona, spoke Spanish, knew the state, and had so many connections here. One early sign was when I found out that Governor Rose Mofford, a family friend, was babysitting Lattie’s daughter while he was getting reacquainted with leaders throughout the state.

José Cárdenas

Senior University Advisor to the President for Social Embeddedness, Civic Engagement and Special Counsel, ASU

I was the student body president of ASU in 1989, and I served on the search committee that selected Lattie as the university’s 15th president. When we traveled to Vermont to interview people, I thought the site visit was a little too formal. So I went out on campus and started talking to maintenance people, gardeners, anyone I could find. They all said the same thing. “Lattie is great.” No one referred to him as Dr. Coor or President Coor. He was Lattie and I believed his sense of ease with people was very genuine.

When I think about Lattie over the years, the first word that comes to mind is “respect.” Lattie respects people and he gives his full attention to everyone he meets.

The second thing is how much Lattie genuinely cares about people. When my wife was accepted to Harvard for her post-doc, I didn’t know what to do. I went to Lattie for career advice. I knew I was not an academic. Lattie said, you really shouldn’t stress about it. You can’t make a bad decision or mistake before you are thirty unless it’s illegal or immoral. Even if its legal, it may not be moral. He told me to go to Harvard and support my wife. That’s the kind of advice my dad might have given.

John Fees

Co-Founder and CEO, NGI Group/GradGuard

The 14-member search committee included educators and regents as well as civic and business leaders. As the committee weeded through more than 200 contenders, one name rose to the top: Lattie Coor, a native Arizonan and president of the University of Vermont.

One Sunday afternoon, SRP executive Mike Rappoport received a call from me. I was in Vermont with the search committee and Lattie's teenage daughter was worried she’d have to give up dressage if she came to Arizona. I remembered that Mike's daughter had ridden horses for years, so I called to check with him. No problem, I could assure Lattie's daughter.

The search team ultimately recommended Coor as the sole candidate. I believed that Lattie was someone who could lead Arizona State University into the 21st century. The regents unanimously approved the choice in May 1989. Lattie Coor was our choice.

Abstracted from Water, Power, Persuasion: How Jack Pfister Shaped Modern Arizona by Kathleen Ingley, 2015

Jack Pfister, Civic Leader

In 1960, Ernest J. Hopkins and Alfred Thomas, Jr. wrote a book, The Arizona State University Story, which detailed the history of education from its earliest beginnings in the Arizona Territory. Thirty years later, when Lattie Coor assumed the presidency, Alfred Thomas, Jr. presented him with a copy of the book along with a personal inscription.

To Lattie F. Coor – President of Arizona State University

Arizona State University waited over a hundred years for your coming as its President. From the beginning as a small institution, it grew to greatness as one of the largest and the best of the great universities of our country and the world.

It seems that times passed by until the institution has reached the point worthy of your leadership in directing its future advancement. Although this volume is now some thirty years out of print — I saved this mint copy just for you.

Sincerely, Alfred Thomas, Jr. ASU Registrar and Director of Admissions (retired)

ASU President Grady and Kay Gammage meet with constituents. AN

In the early days, when Arizona was a territory, a place of settlers and small communities, we served first as Tempe Normal, and then as Arizona State Teacher’s College to prepare teachers, including my father, for our frontier society. As Phoenix and its surrounding communities began to grow with the activity triggered by the nation’s response to the Second World War, we became Arizona State College and added to our portfolio a broader array of educational offerings tailored to the needs of that new Arizona.

In the late 1950’s, as this Valley began to define itself as an emerging metropolitan area, we became Arizona State University due to the efforts of ASU President Grady Gammage.

He laid the foundation for the nationally recognized, comprehensive university that we have become, working with business and industry to make this Valley one of the leading centers of high technology in the country. We also supported the arts and the humanities, to nurture here a cultural richness that has captured the vibrance of the desert Southwest, a truly culturally diverse society. It was an extraordinary time in ASU’s history.

In 1990, my goals for the future were focused on one thing — quality in all we do — from academics to research, our impact on economic development, embedding ASU more deeply in the community, and giving talented young leaders the opportunity to thrive in Arizona.

TWO PERSONAL STORIES

In the Fall of 1993, I was part of the Valley Leadership program. I was given the opportunity to “shadow” someone for a day, and I chose Lattie Coor. I was familiar with what he was doing at ASU, but this was the first meaningful time I had spent with him.

There were many memorable experiences that day. Lattie was so gracious, and I was able to be in every meeting he had that day, even one with Provost Milt Glick. Around 10:30 that morning, Lattie said we should walk the campus. As we walked, students would come up to him and he talked with everyone. It struck me how comfortable the students were with him. It was obvious they were used to seeing him and talking with him. Lattie also picked up any trash he saw on campus, so I started doing it too!

My other memorable experience was that Lattie picked a day for my shadowing when ASU was playing Stanford, my alma mater, and later that evening we picked Elva up and went to the game. Lattie made me feel so comfortable. He talked about the things he cared about and what his plans were. At this time, I knew a number of community leaders but no one had ever interacted with me the way Lattie did. He explained everything about the context of meetings, what was important to know. It truly gave me a window into his world. It was one of the most special days, and the best part of my Valley Leadership experience.

Paul Luna President and CEO, Helios Education Foundation

One of the things that brought me to ASU was the fact that Lattie is a leader who keeps his word. When I arrived, he told me I could make any changes I wanted, and he would “stand behind me holding my coat.”

There were many times when I felt that changes should be made, and they would be difficult because many involved changes to Gammage itself. This is an iconic building, but it was designed for a large orchestral program.

Lattie asked me what artistic direction would keep Gammage vital and vibrant. I felt ASU should be in the business of touring Broadway, culturally specific arts and artists, and innovative work. We wanted to book THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, but actual structure changes would have to be made. The sound stage had to extend forward for the level of staging this play requires. I knew people wouldn’t like this, but it had to be done. As always, Lattie took the heat. We worked with Taliesin and NASA engineers to accomplish all that needed to happen, including wheelchair ramps and interior elevators for culturally iconic individuals like Stephen Hawking and Itzhak Perlman. We made Gammage accessible to both performers and audiences.

Lattie knew that Gammage was not only important to the cultural life of Arizona but also to its economic development.

Colleen Jennings-Roggensack

Vice President for Cultural Affairs, Arizona State University

A New Era In Higher Education

Universities were just beginning to connect with the larger issues of society, not just with civil rights but with the economy and the shaping of public policy in both a university’s local and regional areas.

Isaw it beginning to flourish at Washington University and the University of Vermont. And I saw the incredible potential of ASU to play a leadership role in Arizona. ASU was an opportunity to serve in a contemporary way the evolution of a city that would become, if I’m right, one of the most important in America and in the Western Hemisphere.

I realized that these different universities — the University of Vermont and Arizona State University — were two totally different entities. I could treasure my years in Vermont and take on ASU as it would be a totally different presidency that represented a new set of challenges that were intriguing.

What I remember most about Lattie was how approachable he was, how welcoming he was to everyone. I had only met him formally until one day I walked into the administration building just as he was coming in from the other side. When he saw me, he smiled, opened his arms and said, “ How are you? It’s so good to see you!”

Lattie has the rare ability to connect with people immediately. His manner is more “everyman” than strictly “presidential.” It didn’t matter who you were, Lattie was interested in everyone he encountered.

As ASU’s president, Lattie was always looking ahead and planning for ASU’s future. He also wanted to know everyone’s point of view. I tend to be a bit quiet in cabinet meetings, so it wasn’t unusual for him to call me and ask me personally for my thoughts. Once he understood all the perspectives, he was very decisive. This ability made it possible for him to reach across every divide, on campus and in the broader community and state.

There’s a significant difference between a good administrator and a president capable of advancing both the university and the larger society it serves.

Christine K. Wilkinson Senior Vice President, Secretary of the University, and President and CEO of the ASU Alumni Association

A COMMITMENT TO QUALITY

In the 10 weeks since I officially took office, and in the briefings and consultations that preceded my arrival in January, I sought to probe the collective will of this university, this community, and this state as to how we might most wisely set our course — our mutual course — in the decade ahead.

To accomplish this, I prowled the halls of the campus, the corridors of the State House and city halls, the boardrooms of business and industry,

met with our key community organizations, all with the intention of listening to what you had to say — about ASU, about Arizona and the Valley — about our prospects for the future.

I began with a certain framework — about the significance of ASU to the Valley and to the State — and with it a set of values that included a commitment to quality in everything we do.

What I found strengthened my view.

I want to tell you a story about Lattie in the early days of his presidency. I was Chair of Anthropology at the time, and we were working with the Department of Public Education and an Indian Education Group. We wanted to start a program in American Indian Education and had organized a meeting with all the groups.

Lattie had recently returned to Arizona as the President of ASU. We asked his office if he would welcome this diverse group of people to the campus to say whatever he wanted to say.

The day arrived and we’re in this large room. Lattie comes in as everyone is getting settled. I met him at the door and he asked what the meeting was about. I had about 20 seconds to tell him what we wanted to do.

Lattie got up to the podium. He welcomed everyone in the front row by name and he even knew their job titles. He spoke about what we wanted to do, how much sense it made, and how much he welcomed their support and participation.

When I tell this story around the older ASU faculty, everyone nods their head and says “Yes, this is the Lattie I know.”

Charles Redman Founding Director, ASU School of Sustainability

The iconic courtyard at Hayden Library. Md Esharuzzaman Emu

An Important Moment to Put An Agenda on the Table

I lived through the turbulent campus era when inaugurals were looked down upon because they cost money, and they were seen as out of character because of the medieval pageantry.

Idisagree. An inaugural is one of the most important bully pulpits a new president has. It’s also a moment when a university can strut its stuff and remind everyone of what it is. And the inauguration is a way to do that.

So the gowns may look medieval. They are. The hat may look silly. It is. But it’s a tradition. Only universities and the church in western society have a lineage that is unbroken. For the universities, the tradition dates back to the seventh or eighth century. The churches even longer.

As I learned in my years in Vermont, the inaugural event is an important moment to put an agenda on the table.

I chose March of 1990, and saw it as a wonderful opportunity.

THE FOUR PILLARS

In planning my inaugural address, I began with a certain framework — about the significance of ASU to the Valley and the State, and with it a set of values. I had four points — they became known and were known throughout my presidency as the “four pillars.” I never used the word “pillar,” but the inaugural printed program had the Doric columns from the West Hall building pictured on the cover, and there were four columns. If you ever need an example of the power of visual imagery, these columns provide an example. The Four Pillars thus became the framework into which we could launch a variety of initiatives. The framework included:

n UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

n GRADUATE EDUCATION

n RESEARCH and ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

n CONNECTION to the COMMUNITY

Under each of the four areas, I posited some major goals that I felt we should accomplish.

I also began talking at the Inaugural about a capital campaign. While it would be unthinkable today, when I was recruited for the ASU presidency, the Arizona Board of Regents never asked me about my campaign experience at either the University of Vermont or Washington University. Neither did the search committee or any of the support groups I met in my many visits to Arizona.

I believe it was because Arizona and ASU were relatively young and public universities were not yet viewed as places that held capital campaigns. But I knew that no matter how well we did with public support, there would have to be private support as well if we were going to achieve ASU’s potential.

For years we went across the Salt River to watch football games and then back across to go home. That was our only connection to ASU. That’s the way most people thought about ASU until Lattie became president.

Because ASU is a state institution, I believed it was the state’s responsibility to fund it. But when I got involved with the university and began learning about its various programs, and what both students and the faculty were accomplishing, the more I saw the university as a flower getting ready to bloom. I came to realize that state support was not enough if a university was to reach its full potential and serve its community as it should.

Dinky Snell

Former Chair, ASU Foundation Board of Directors Campaign co-chair, The ASU Campaign for Leadership

President Coor being robed by his mother, Elnora Coor, and his daughter Farryl.

The four pillars on the cover of President Coor’s Inaugural Program.

Goal 1: Quality In Undergraduate Education

One of my favorite memories of Lattie’s presidency was his Inaugural Address. He laid out a vision for ASU, reminding me of the importance of vision in altering the future of an organization. Lattie’s vision focused first on providing all ASU students with a quality education. At the time, we didn’t have strong student retention/graduation rates, and Lattie’s vision inspired my college to bring faculty together to address the issue.

We focused on interventions for “killer classes,” those with very low grades:

1. Required class attendance

2. Daily pop quizzes

3. Increased faculty/student engagement

4. Counselors in residence halls

When Lattie and Ted Humphrey focused on building the Honors College, the Business School added courses for majors. With the support of Don Budinger and Dick and Dinky Snell, we began providing internship scholarships for our Honors students to raise high school graduation rates of high-risk youth. With the addition of a series of business honors courses and the willingness of business faculty to support students’ honors theses, the College of Business began routinely graduating 50 percent of the Honors College graduates.

These efforts not only strengthened the quality of education our students received, they also set the future direction of the University and the College. Today the Carey Business School is among the finest in the country.

Larry Penley, Former Dean, Carey School of Business, Member, Arizona Board of Regents

The quality of undergraduate education must be and always will be a major goal for ASU in the future.

Iwanted to downsize the Tempe Campus in selective ways and increase the numbers of faculty in areas where class sizes were inappropriately large. Downsizing turned out to be unfeasible because the number of students was so intertwined with state appropriations.

I also believed we must take steps in the months immediately ahead to make this university much more actively student-oriented in the way we organize and deliver services. The press of expansion, with the inevitable growth in the size of the University, had caused us to lose some of the student-centered responsiveness that I believed should characterize a great university.

We focused on a set of immediate goals:

n Ensure that entering students can gain entry to courses they reasonably could expect to take.

n Eliminate the disparity between the number of lower-division students and upper-division spaces available.

n Ensure that graduating students could enroll in their final semester or year in courses required to complete their degrees.

n Establish a program of mandatory academic advising for all entering undergraduates.

n Find ways to have our very best professors teach introductory courses to our undergraduates.

It was not easy, but we did it.

© Shelly Valdez

UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

I believed then and still do that we need to find creative ways to make the organization of the entire University lighter, more flexible, and more responsive.

As an educator, my first concern is always the student experience.

I believed as well we should explore ways to create a greater sense of community on the campus in ways that would enable us to advance our commitment to academic quality as we do so. I simply refused to believe that size alone need be a deterrent to a humanscale institution.

The pressures of growth made it difficult for ASU to sustain the sense of community that we had enjoyed historically, and I wanted to explore with the campus ways in which we could create and expand that sense of community on the campus in the years ahead.

One immediate focus was on supporting ASU’s effort to establish a University-wide Honors College.

The Honors Program at ASU was established in 1958 as a unit in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This was common practice around the country at the time. Unfortunately, it led to an emphasis on the humanities to the near exclusion of other disciplines and students pursuing degrees in other fields.

This conclusion allowed me to argue successfully for an independent Honors College that won the approval of both the Administration and the Arizona Board of Regents. When Lattie Coor accepted the ASU Presidency, he made the Honors College a key priority because of its importance to his vision of ASU. He understood the challenges that had to be addressed if we were going to be successful.

First, we needed buy-in from all the disciplinary colleges, and the Honors curriculum had to be negotiated in each one. The thesis required for an Honors degree had to be adopted, and we had to create University Honors College units on all four ASU campuses as they were established.

The second great challenge was to recruit high achieving students interested in all ASU programs. We focused on Arizona students first, but in 1991 we decided to position ASU as a nationally significant option. To jump-start national recruiting, we focused on National Merit Scholars. In that first year, ASU attracted 114 of these students from around the country, along with a handful of National Hispanic Scholars. Our success attracted both local and national attention.

Dr.

Ted Humphrey Founding Dean, The Barrett Honors College

Goal 2: Quality of Graduate Education and Research Opportunities

Graduate education is closely linked to our research capacity. ASU had already been working with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to become a Research 1 University, a designation that had great meaning both in the larger academic world, and in this community.

This goal was achieved in 1994 and it confirmed the fact that ASU was better than it was thought to be. The Research 1 designation is based largely upon a combination of earned competitive research grants in volume and the number of doctoral degrees confirmed. This standard was originally set by Clark Kerr some 20 years earlier and the designation process was now led by Ernie Boyer, another one of the giants of American higher education. We invited Ernie out to visit the campus and he had a chance to see firsthand what was going on and how engaged we were in graduate education and research.

The expansion of our graduate educational programs was rapid and significant, and it would

continue to be in the years ahead throughout my tenure and through the presidency of Michael Crow, and appropriately so, if ASU is to be the kind of university we must be to serve this remarkable metropolitan area and state.

There was no question when I came here in 1983 that UA was “where it was at” in Arizona. ASU was a very distant #2 in people’s minds. Then Lattie came and there was a sea level change. It happened in the Arizona Board of Regents, the Legislature, the business community and the state’s civic leadership.

There were a number of reasons, including all the ways that Lattie and Elva worked to engage the community. They include expanding the President’s Club and starting the highly effective President’s Community Engagement Programs. I enjoyed being part of Origins, a four-part series that was offered by Journeys of the Mind. Another fun engagement activity was the hiking club the Coors established. It brought faculty and community partners together in such a wonderful way.

When ASU achieved the Research I designation in 1994, it changed a lot of attitudes about the academic strength of ASU. There are not a lot of public universities that achieve the distinction without a medical school. The benefits include a new sense of self-esteem among faculty. It makes alumni proud and adds value to the degrees that students earn here.

It’s impossible to overstate the impact of the Research I designation on both our current faculty and graduate students. Immediately, faculty felt a new sense of pride and self-esteem and the value of earning a graduate degree from ASU increased. It became easier to recruit both faculty and graduate students. Finally, it helped greatly in the competitive research grant process.

My career is an ASU career. I’ve been here for 40 years, and I’ve watched the University continue its unbroken upward trajectory.

Charles Redman Founding Director, ASU School of Sustainability

GRADUATE EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

Here too, as in undergraduate instruction, we had to make quality the standard by which we chose our areas of emphasis.

DEVELOPING CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE

I wanted to establish the concept of “Centers of Excellence” as a framework for decisions, a way in which we could systematically evaluate all proposals for strengthening and advancing research and graduate study at ASU.

Through an orderly process of identifying and evaluating those activities that best fit our mission as a major national research university, we set out to selectively strengthen those programs where we could compete with the very best in the nation, and to build the features we most wish to see characterize our profile as a research university in the years ahead.

Two good examples were the development of a high-quality university-wide Honors College and a multi-disciplinary Center for Environmental Studies. Both have continued evolving in quality and impact to this day.

Without question, we needed to seek active assistance, as do all major research universities, in augmenting existing resources to support those key areas in which we truly intend to compete on a national and international basis. State support, of course, but federal, corporate and, increasingly, private support would be necessary.

I believed we must begin right away to plan a program of augmenting that support through the provision of endowed chairs and professorships, of equipment and facilities grants, and of graduate student and operating support in areas we deemed most important. We began planning.

I came to ASU in 1983. The university at that time was a place of opportunity and openness to change. If you talked to faculty in other places during the 80’s and 90’s, that is not what they would say about their universities. For the people who took advantage of ASU, it was the best place to be in the country.

My own career is a good example. I served as chair of the Department of Anthropology for nine years. My work was very interdisciplinary and included human impacts on the environment, sustainable landscapes and the origin of cities.

Lattie was very interested in the environment, and he asked me to serve as director of the Center for Environmental Studies. We received a large grant and many of the faculty recruited to the Center are still at ASU today and doing impressive work. We wouldn’t be the university we are today if Lattie hadn’t changed ASU’s direction in so many ways.

Eighteen years ago, Michael Crow asked me to become the founding director of the School of Sustainability. Lots of good things happened there, culminating in an NSF grant of $12 million focusing our work on how to build resilient cities that could address major disasters like hurricanes and extreme heat. Today Phoenix is the only city in the country to have an Office of Heat Mitigation and Resilience. It wouldn’t have happened without ASU.

I will always think of ASU as the “university of opportunity.”

Charles Redman Founding Director, ASU School of Sustainability

The Walton Center for Planetary Health.

Goal 3: Increase Research Activity and Impact On Economic Development

The Research 1 designation that the university achieved in 1994 was an incredible accomplishment for ASU and the larger community. We were recognized by the National Science Foundation as the fastestgrowing research university in the U.S, ahead of Harvard, Yale, Duke and others. No university in the country has come further, or faster than ASU. I don’t think Clark Kerr, one of the country’s giants in higher education, would disagree. Clark was invited to ASU to give a lecture when President Russ Nelson announced his retirement. In looking back over my notes, he said:

“There will be very few great new universities in America. They are too hard to build and there are too many other things competing for resources, but there will be a few. They will be public, they will be in the sunbelt, they will be in a major emerging urban area, they will have an established base on which they can build.”

I mean you hear it, and you say, “It’s ASU, that’s ASU!”

In Lattie’s inaugural address, he spoke of economic development as the third pillar in his vision of ASU as the modern metropolitan university of the future. His vision was of a Research I public university that worked closely with the business and industry sector throughout the Valley, changing the future for the university and all the communities it served.

That single statement — that commitment — changed everything for the business community. We talked in the industry about the need to get ASU taken seriously by measuring the university’s success in supporting economic development efforts going forward.

Lattie worked closely with deans Larry Penley (business), Peter Crouch (engineering), and industry leaders like Gary Tooker to increase industry leaders access to ASU research and impact on regional economic development.

To achieve that goal, Lattie first opened an Office of Economic Development on campus to make ASU’s research capacities more readily available to key organizations in the Valley, and later the state, that had the capacity to enhance our economic vitality. The Research I designation was achieved in 1994, and by then Lattie was successfully creating a multi-campus presence throughout the metro area that supported the unique needs of each region.

I believe that Lattie’s partnership with the business community was one of his greatest achievements for everyone in Arizona.

Craig Barrett, CEO, Intel (ret.)

Clark Kerr

Economic development and the active involvement of a major research university now go hand in hand.

It was my responsibility to explore ways to make our capacities more readily available in the years ahead.

We were very fortunate in the Valley to have seen the partnership between the University and key segments of the community grow significantly in recent years to a point where a good deal of mutual activity was going on. However, it was time, especially with the economic softening that was taking place in our state, for us to strengthen the partnership.

We took a number of steps to do so. The most significant was opening an Office of Economic Development that worked directly with me and other key officers and faculty to make our capacities more readily available to Arizona organizations and businesses that were working to enhance our economic vitality.

A number of issues challenge a modern society — environmental quality, transportation systems, the quality of our public education system, the community’s ability to plan adequately for the future. I believed all of these challenges and more could benefit from the analytical and advisory capacities of the University.

There have been many valuable partnerships between the community and the University in the past, and I believed they would be even more important in the future. It was my responsibility to explore ways to make our capacities more readily available in the years ahead.

And not just in Arizona. ASU also needed to partner with the Federal government through its Congressional delegation.

When Lattie arrived at ASU in January of 1990, I was on staff at the ASU Alumni Association and running for the Tempe City Council. I was elected in May, so Lattie inherited having a Tempe elected official on the ASU staff.

At the Alumni Association, I reported to Executive Director Don Dotts, who wanted me to build constituent relations. Then Brent Brown, ASU Vice-President for University Relations, brought me into his office. Lattie wanted to create a new federal relations program, and I knew the congressional delegation members via my elected official role, so I was tasked with getting it up and going. Lattie wanted me in DC twice a month to get ASU better known to the delegation and their staff, which at the time included Congressman Jay Rhodes and young Senator John McCain.

In 1991, Lattie hired Milt Glick as Provost. He was from Iowa State and their federal program was years ahead of ours. Milt wanted me to have a weekly conference call with a colleague of his from Iowa to help us chart a solid path. The colleague was none other than Michael Crow, who helped us prepare our first major federal funding request on nanotechnology, which Congressman Ed Pastor helped get in appropriation bill language. It was all a tremendous experience.

Neil Giuliano

President and CEO, Greater Phoenix Leadership

ASU’S IMPACT ON ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLIC POLICY

Lattie earned an important place in Arizona’s economic development history when ASU became a designated Research 1 university in 1994. This was a critically important achievement. It elevated the level of national academic respect for ASU and provided the Greater Phoenix Region with the knowledge anchor it would need to become the thriving high-tech and innovation hub that it is today.

But before anything like that could happen, political and business leaders would need to support economic development in ways that they would have considered unthinkable a few decades earlier: that is, invest in key science and technology research and talent. Lattie was one of a handful of people who could corral the support of skeptics to shift their policy priorities.

Of all the things that Lattie did to shape Arizona’s economic future, this — his ability to sway Arizonans to move on to new ambitions at pivotal times — might be the most impactful.

One way to illustrate his impact at critical times is by highlighting his connection to two Morrison Institute for Public Policy reports:

n Arizona’s Strategic Plan for Economic Development (1992), and

n Five Shoes Waiting to Drop on Arizona’s Future (2001). These reports have been at the intellectual heart of many debates about public policy in Arizona, and it is fair to say that Arizona’s economic development direction has been shaped to a large degree by them. The fact that they have

“Arizona was the first state in the nation to adopt a strategic plan that focused on building industry clusters.”

Mary Jo Waits, Old Main

become part of the vernacular — ASPED, Five Shoes — is one measure of their impact.

The messages of these reports weren’t always popular, though, and were resisted by some key leaders. Lattie understood the controversy, since each report revealed that Arizona lagged in areas critical to its future and raised the fact that political and business leaders weren’t paying attention to the right things.

Lattie also understood that these reports — and the debates they generated — presented a major opportunity for Arizonans to reconsider their economic policy priorities. He understood that it would be important to build a surge of support for each report’s messages early on. So, he met with residents, business executives, and public policy leaders to

talk about the research, facts, and recommendations in a way that each group could understand and support.

ASPED is one example. Arizona was the first state to adopt an economic development strategy that focused on building industry clusters. Because cluster-based strategies are used in most states today, including Arizona, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t an easy sell in the early 1990s. It was difficult to explain industry clusters, and the new focus ruffled the feathers of some traditional industries. Not surprisingly, Lattie could explain the cluster approach in language that both business and political leaders could understand and gave so many speeches about the new economic priorities across Arizona that some thought he might be preparing to run for governor.

FIVE SHOES WAITING TO DROP ON ARIZONA’S FUTURE

1. TALENT SHAKE UP

We think we’re good at attracting brain power, but how do we keep tomorrow’s footloose talent.

2. LATINO EDUCATION DILEMMA

Latino youth are upwardly mobile, but they need better education for Arizona to take advantage of this exploding population.

3. A FUZZY ECONOMIC IDENTITY

Arizona is growing high-tech jobs, but we haven’t met the challenge of ensuring we can excel in the long term.

4. LOST STEWARDSHIP

Leadership has become a spectator sport in Arizona.

5. THE REVENUE SIEVE

Arizona’s tax system is old and full of leaks.

The “Five Shoes” report stirred up another round of public policy debates. In fact, the report served as the basis for a gubernatorial candidates debate in 2002.

Governor Janet Napolitano, who won that election, often said that the “Five Shoes” report influenced her administration’s agenda.

The report was a good catalyst for public policy debates. It was easy and fun to read, with a crisp writing style and stylish design, and the idea of alarming trends being “shoes waiting to drop on Arizona’s future” was interesting. But the report’s most compelling feature was the surprising choice of trends. As the report put it, the trends were well underway in Arizona, but couldn’t yet be seen by the general public. Betsey Bayless, then Arizona Secretary of State, summarized the response: “Everyone just loved ‘Five Shoes’”

There were detractors. Some state legislators were skeptical of the report — and especially skeptical of the “revenue shoe” which warned that Arizona’s tax system was old and full of leaks. Lattie heard the criticisms first, during legislative meetings, and moved quickly to resolve misunderstandings about the report and take the air out of any political or ideological motives behind the criticisms. Lattie was incredibly committed and adept at addressing misinformed criticisms of the report.

In practical terms, the “five shoes” warned that the competitive tempo had picked up in the global economy and that Arizona had to do more — and quickly — to be a leading innovation and high-tech hub. And while a lot of good things were happening with the economic development strategies already underway, Arizona needed to look again at its economic identity, its research capabilities, its talent, its

downtowns and lifestyle amenities, and its financial resources with an eye to competitive advantage, because the kinds of research, industry, talent, and amenities key to innovation are increasingly clustering in the urban areas of a relatively small group of metropolitan areas.

The message resonated particularly well with cities in the Phoenix metro area. Within five years of the “Five Shoes” report, Scottsdale, Phoenix and Chandler all had new strategies to position their downtowns as anchors of the innovation economy. In 2002, a group of Scottsdale CEOs (e.g.,The Dial Corporation, Discount Tire, DMB Associates, General Dynamics, Motorola) asked the Morrison Institute to look at Scottsdale’s situation and prepare a “Scottsdale 2.0” economic development agenda (Which Way Scottsdale?). This strategy called for transforming the southern part of the city — specifically a 42-acre site that was once the Los Arcos mall — into an innovation hub (currently the site for SkySong and the ASU Innovation Center) and called for upgrading Scottsdale’s downtown with quality-of-life amenities appealing to the world’s best talent. By 2004, Phoenix had a new blueprint to shape its downtown into an innovation hub by adding major knowledge anchors (Phoenix Biomedical campus, ASU downtown campus). And, as we know today, these two strategies, and later ones by Chandler and Mesa, would change Arizona’s economic trajectory in ways hardly imaginable back in 1994.

Mary Jo Waits Associate Director, ASU Morrison Institute for Public Policy, 1990-2004

Goal 4: Connection to Community

I’m going to start at the beginning.

I knew Lattie when he was President of the University of Vermont. I was at Dartmouth, Director of the Hopkins Center, and Lattie was familiar with my work. When he decided to return to Arizona as ASU’s president, he invited me to join him.

We couldn’t come immediately. My husband Kurt was finishing his PhD and we were also expecting our daughter Kelsey. We finally came in 1992, largely because Lattie had a vision. He wanted ASU to be truly a public institution,

open and welcoming to everyone and completely embedded in its community, state, and region. ASU offered the chance to build something new.

My first six or seven years here were about how to bring all parts of the community to campus, and how to take the university into the community. One of the first things I did was create programs to bring Latin American, African American, Asian and contemporary Native American arts and communities to campus. We brought K-12 students and teachers to campus, and we delivered programs to their schools. We built extensive relationships with the military bases and worked with high school remedial programs. We held political debates on campus and U.S. citizens’ swearing-in ceremonies. Today, ASU has one of the largest art and culture programs in the West.

Colleen JenningsRoggensack ASU Vice President for Cultural Affairs

I believe the richness of our cultural heritage in Arizona is one of the most significant historical assets we have, one that we must incorporate more fully into the daily life of this University.

That’s why the work that Colleen has been doing for years is so important. It connects ASU to the community and brings the community — all parts of the community — to ASU.

A great comprehensive university has many ways to serve its region, especially in such a rapidly growing area as Metro Phoenix. All we needed to do was launch the kind of programming that made people want to get to know us, become part of who we are. When Elva and I married in 1994, she owned her own business, but wasn’t actively managing it. I asked her to devote her considerable energies to the University by creating programs that connected ASU to Greater Phoenix. She agreed and the rest is history.

THE VIEW FROM SOUTH MOUNTAIN

Lattie and I had known each other in college as hiking friends and when he returned to Arizona, we began hiking again throughout the Valley. Since his inauguration, he had been working to better connect ASU to all the communities in the Salt River Valley. His efforts resulted in the growth and expansion of several additional campuses — first ASU West, then ASU Polytechnic and the first footprints in Downtown Phoenix.

In many ways, our move to South Mountain set the stage for the success of what became the President’s Community Enrichment Programs.

Lattie and I were married in 1994, and we decided to move from University House on campus to South Mountain. As many of you know, we built a wonderful home on 3.5 acres at the base of the mountain with spectacular views. From that house, people could see everything from the White Tanks in the west to the Superstitions in the east, and from South Mountain to Camelback Mountain, Piestewa Peak, and the McDowells.

This home became a place where we could bring people together from all parts of the Valley. We could gather with people who were already colleagues and working together on many business, civic, and non-profit efforts. We could also introduce them to other like-minded people they might not have met before. One look at the Valley from our mountain perspective helped them see and understand that ASU was an incredible resource for the whole Valley.

Elva Coor

CONNECTION TO COMMUNITY

ELVA, I HAD NO IDEA!

The President’s Community Enrichment Programs (PCEP) started when my husband, Lattie Coor, asked me to help him close the gap between ASU and the Valley it serves. I had to close my own business to do it, but I couldn’t say no, and that decision became one of the great highlights of my life.

As a native Arizonan, I had been involved in Greater Phoenix for more than 50 years. I interned with Barry

Goldwater right out of high school in his Washington Office, and I soon knew many of the state’s elected leaders. Over the years, I gained experience in many aspects of how the public, private, and non-profit communities work.

My first task was to educate myself about ASU. I began by asking the deans if they would give me a tour of their college, and I invited some influential people from the community to join me on these tours. People were amazed at what they saw. They had no idea of the research ASU was doing in so many areas.

Tour participants began to realize they were missing this kind of intellectual stimulation in their lives, and so we began exploring ways to enrich their lives. I brought a group of community volunteers together and we developed three programs — Journeys of the Mind, Adventures in Learning and Great Conversations. Many community members who attended PCEP soon became President’s Club members and also made donations to various areas of need within the University.

President’s Community Enrichment Programs

I was hired by Elva to help her start the President’s Community Enrichment Programs. The idea for these programs came from Elva’s realization that Greater Phoenix was unaware of ASU’s research and the talented faculty who were providing it.

From the beginning, we would meet with the deans of each college to plan PCEP programs (30 or more), which ranged from short, one evening lectures to longer, more in-depth programs that would last four to six weeks. These programs featured cutting-edge ASU research or the discussion of timely topics. Some programs took place in the community, hosted by volunteers in their homes. Others were held on campus. The indepth classes were held in the community in donated spaces.

Elva was committed. She would talk ASU to everyone she met! She would bring names to me written on napkins or other scraps of paper. She would say, “Here is a new name for our database, give them a call and invite them to a program. They’re interested in learning about ASU.”

For me, being an ASU graduate and having been involved as a volunteer with many non-profits, I was so enthusiastic about putting my energy into supporting ASU. I met so many wonderful people and I learned so much along the way.

Connecting the dots was interesting and fun!

Gena Bonsall, Program Director

Elva Coor

Elva and the PCEP staff: (from left) Adrienne Schiffner, Noreen McKeel, and Gena Bonsall

CONNECTION TO COMMUNITY

To launch Journeys of the Mind, Ted Humphrey, Founding Dean of the ASU Honors College, and Gary Krahenbuhl, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, suggested a series of four programs led by different faculty members.

The topic was Origins, and the themes were the universe, the solar system, man, and civilization. It was an an exciting topic that would highlight a number of research areas that most people did not realize ASU was leading.

A close friend, Florence Nelson, who served on the ASU Foundation Board at the time, agreed to host the series at her home. We sent out invitations, expecting 20 to 30 community people to accept, but more than 90 people accepted and the programs were a big hit. At the end of the four-session series, people were saying, “Elva, I went to Harvard and never had professors like this.”

From then on, each PCEP event gave the college deans, faculty and some staff the opportunity to develop relationships with influential people from all sections of the community. The most common response I heard for years was, “Elva, I had no idea!”

I asked each of the deans if they would assign someone to meet with the PCEP staff and volunteer committee once a year to help plan programs. To my surprise, every dean said, “I’ll do it myself.” And they did.

The result was approximately 30 new Journeys of the Mind programs every year. Soon the deans were planning interdisciplinary programs in colleges that had never worked together before. It was obvious they valued PCEP as much as the community did. One of Lattie’s goals was to gain the support and respect of the greater metropolitan area. The challenge was to determine how to systematically bring the leadership of the Valley and local philanthropy to the University. Trial and error, and many conversations with a wonderful group of community leaders made the programs effective and successful.

Elva Coor

I’m a second generation Arizonan but I didn’t really get to know ASU until I got involved with Elva and worked with her on the concept that became the President’s Community Enrichment Programs (PCEP). Elva knew so many people in Phoenix and across Arizona. She was the perfect person to start these programs.

Elva had made a real effort to work with the deans and get to know the colleges, the programs, the faculty and what they were learning in their research. Her excitement really inspired me and all the other volunteers she recruited. Getting people interested wasn’t hard. The idea was brilliant. “Get involved in something significant.“ These programs were fun with a purpose. It was so interesting to attend Journeys of the Mind.

For many years they were home-hosted by community members. It was not only a chance to socialize but to learn something new every time. After hearing a wonderful program on “energy,” my husband and I bought solar panels for our home.

The more I learned about ASU and the faculty, the more impressed I was.

Anne Christensen PCEP Community Volunteer

Ted Humphrey Gary Krahenbuhl Florence Nelson

Coor

One of Lattie’s goals was to gain the support and respect of the greater Phoenix Metro area.

The challenge was to determine how to systemically bring the leadership of the Valley and local philanthropy to the university.

PCEP is now one of three community engagement programs at the ASU Foundation, along with the President’s Club and the newer Women & Philanthropy program launched by Sybil Francis in 2002. I served as an early consultant for the women’s program as it was getting started. Since its inception, it has provided more than $4.5 million in support of 101 ASU programs.

The President’s Club has existed through several administrations and its goals have changed with the changing goals of the ASU Presidents. During Lattie’s presidency, the organization played a key role in launching the largest fundraising campaign in Arizona history.

When Michael Crow became ASU’s President, PCEP continued. He and Sybil did a brilliant job of taking it to the next level, taking advantage of what we had put together, and significantly expanding the President’s Club.

Elva Coor

I was 27 years old when I came to ASU in 1995 to create a volunteer organization for the capital campaign that Lattie was preparing to launch. Within a few months, I was given the opportunity to become director of the ASU President’s Club. It was an “eyes wide open” experience.

The culture of philanthropy was not yet in place at ASU. I appreciated being thrown into the mix and learning firsthand from Lattie and Elva how important it is to engage in active listening. I also learned how to build relationships, and quickly recognized that philanthropy isn’t simply transactional. It’s about trust.

The President’s Club was the first group that Lattie asked to be involved in the campaign. It was already in existence but we wanted to grow it and get others involved. Prior to Lattie’s presidency, there had never been any $1 million gifts to ASU. That changed quickly under Lattie’s leadership. The campaign launched with a $300 million goal and closed at $560 million, the largest in Arizona history at that time.

The President’s Club and Elva’s work launching and growing the President’s Community Enrichment Programs were critically important as an entry into ASU, a place where people could find their passion.

Gretchen Buhlig Chief Executive Officer, ASU Foundation

Sybil Francis and Elva

The opportunity to work with Elva on PCEP came at a good time in my life. My kids were grown, and I was asking myself, “What am I going to do now?

My husband Dan had known Elva from other volunteer work and how I became involved in PCEP. The programs gave people the chance to socialize while enjoying fascinating discussions about interesting new research and what we’re learning. We didn’t want anyone to go away and say they were bored.

The home-hosted events for Journeys of the Mind programs continued for seven years. We couldn’t continue with that warm, social kind of environment

CONNECTION TO COMMUNITY

because they became too popular – too many people wanted to come. I personally hosted several Journeys of the Mind events.

Dan's and my involvement with PCEP led us to other ways to become involved with ASU. After a few years we joined the President’s Club, which was a financial commitment to the University and to Lattie.

Elva left a great legacy. The programs changed life in the Valley so much.

Community volunteers, program materials and wordof-mouth helped ASU and its faculty become known throughout the Valley.

Lattie and Elva have always been passionate about bringing new, helpful, science-based ideas to the people of Arizona. I was lucky enough to be included in one such important community success.

In the early 2000’s, as a faculty member, I was invited by Lattie and Elva to share exciting discoveries from neuroscience that explain how an infant/toddler brain actually develops.

Elva devised a clever approach that would bring adults together, who were likely past child-bearing concerns of their own, to learn about the human brain across the lifespan. This resulted in a program, Journeys of the Mind. Dr. Morris Okum, from the Gerontology Department, shared interesting facts about the aging brain … AFTER the audience listened to me share messages from neuroscience about ‘what matters most’ for healthy early brain development.

This interest, generated by Lattie and Elva, resulted in a citizen’s ballot initiative to provide funding for early childhood, resulting in First Things First, a high-quality early childhood organization, that continues to provide critical guidance for all interested Arizonans.

Jill Stamm PhD, Associate Clinical Professor, ASU

Anne Donahoe PCEP Community Volunteer Elva Coor, Tony Mason, Jill Stamm, and Lattie Coor.

CONNECTION TO COMMUNITY

Some of my favorite memories of the Coor presidency involve the fun adventures we shared, especially in Mexico. At the time, the larger donors to the President’s Club would join the Coors for an educational trip every year. Lattie and Elva would plan everything.

We went to Mexico several times. Lattie knew where to go; he knew the best restaurants, and he spoke the language. Our Teotihuacan adventure was a joy. George Cowgill of the ASU faculty was doing archeological work there, and we had access to the pyramid. Another time we stayed in a remote hacienda outside Mexico City. When we went into the city, there was a presidential election going on. There were protests with people in the streets. Lattie was able to tell us what was happening. He could explain the political issues and the views of the political parties. Whenever I see any of the people who traveled with us, they still talk about their adventures with the President’s Club and the Coors.

Over the years, I became very good friends with the Coors. So did so many other people. Lattie and Elva knew how to entertain, how to connect with people, and how to connect them to one another.

It’s a rare and valuable gift.

Gretchen Buhlig Chief Executive Officer, ASU Foundation

President’s Club

Having the flexibility to respond to emerging initiatives and urgent needs is one of the hallmarks of a great university.

The President's Strategic Investment Fund, supported by the ASU President’s Club, allows the ASU President to support important university-wide initiatives such as student scholarships, innovative research that addresses global priorities and other programs and activities that advance the visibility and reputation of ASU both locally and globally.

Pyramid at Teotihuacan, Mexico.

Leonid Andronov

CONNECTION TO COMMUNITY

President’s Club members provide the ASU president with financial and intellectual resources, enabling the president to look beyond tradition, and to embrace entrepreneurship and innovation.

The ASU President’s Club is a partnership of extraordinary men and women who care passionately about higher education.

These individuals embrace the University. They hold it close to their hearts and they care about the role ASU plays in our community. They are business and community leaders who understand that ASU’s reach extends to the economic, social and cultural health of our community.

Since its founding in 1985, members of the President’s Club have always held a special role here, serving as trusted advisers to the Office of the President and providing expertise and advocacy.

The President’s Club has also been instrumental in providing the resources necessary to give ASU a competitive edge. These resources make it possible for us to find innovative responses to the emerging needs of a university that is characterized by inclusiveness and enthusiasm for creating new ideas, making it possible for us to find solutions to the challenges that will always confront the University, Arizona and the global society.

Michael Crow President, Arizona State University

Photos: Loren Anderson

CONNECTION TO COMMUNITY

Ever since my years in Flagstaff, I wanted university students to have the kind of experience that I had growing up and in college.

ACCESS & OPPORTUNITY

Another important part of Goal 4, “Connection to the Community” was also important to me personally.

As one of the fastest growing universities in one of the fastest growing metro regions, ASU needed to look and feel like the welcoming community we are — visibly apparent in our faculty, staff, and students.

It should reflect our cultural and historic roots — by race, ethnicity and gender — and we must ensure a fuller representation in all facets of the University — not only in the student body but also in the senior ranks of faculty, staff and administration.

I invited the various cultural communities to join us in helping shape our agenda. I believe that retention through graduation must assume a more central place on our agenda. And I believe we should explore ways to increase the number of minority and female students going on to the PhD so that we here in Arizona can add significantly to the diverse nature of the next generation of faculty members and administrators, both those we recruit for this campus, and those we help prepare for careers elsewhere. Until we help this University and this state ensure that every background, by race, ethnicity, and gender is fully represented in the mainstream of our society, we cannot rest.

Alfredo Gutierrez, Burton Barr, and Art Hamilton were all very active in the AZ legislature, and frequently worked together to get things done. It was probably over a casual dinner at Durant’s that they came up with the idea for HB2108 in 1986-87 during Russ Nelson’s presidency.

The legislation was passed to provide the three public universities with the money to improve minority attendance and retention. ASU received the majority of the funding because it had the largest percentage of minority students. I had worked on Alfredo’s campaign during college and had become the principal of St. Michael’s on the Navajo Nation.

When the legislation was passed, Alfredo recruited me to take over ASU’s Project Prime, a set of programs to improve the academic skills of students in targeted middle and high schools. The goal was to help more students who showed academic promise to gain the knowledge and skills they would need to successfully complete a rigorous college degree.

Project Prime encompassed eight or nine programs at any given time. The funding was never strategically applied until Lattie became ASU’s President in 1990. Lattie made sure the funding was not absorbed or allocated to other areas, and that ASU’s Leadership was committed and accountable.

John Lincoln , Director, ASU Project Prime and Office of Youth Preparation (ret.), Member, Navajo Nation

Project Prime, later renamed the Office of Youth Preparation, included Algebridge and a Young Writers’ Program for middle school, MESA, Parents for Partners, Junior Law, and Test Skills to improve student scores on standardized tests, and a number of others.

If I had to attribute the reason for steady increases in the number of Hispanic, Black and Native American students coming to ASU, it would be the Math/Science Honors Program led by Dr. Joaquin Bustoz. Algebra and Calculus were huge barriers for high school kids in terms of success in college, and this program helped them overcome those barriers. Sustained over many years, Dr. Bustoz guided hundreds of kids through college and graduate school. Today they’re out in the

Office of Youth Preparation

community as professors and teachers, paying it forward.

The Hispanic Mother Daughter Program was another example. It was an excellent program, but it worked with a small number of middle school students each year. It was very intimate and personal, affecting the whole family. As the girls matured through school and came to university, their success impacted the whole family. This is not a program that could be scaled because of the size of the staff that would be needed.

Throughout his presidency, Lattie put together the preparatory foundation that helped minority students come to ASU prepared to succeed, and they came in increasing numbers.

John Lincoln, Director, ASU Project Prime and Office of Youth Preparation (ret.), Member, Navajo Nation

Phoenix attorney Andrew Hurwitz, former chief of staff for Governors Babbitt and Mofford, was appointed to the Board of Regents in 1988.

One of his passions was increasing the minority enrollment at the universities and it was a passion of mine too. My advice to all of us on ABOR was, “If you want something to get better, measure it.” In Fall 1988 (shortly after the passage of HB2108), the Regents adopted a plan calling for the three public universities to increase their minority enrollment and graduation rates by 10 percent a year for the next five years. The presidents could choose their own strategies and count on the Regents’ support.

When Lattie Coor arrived, he embraced the new goals wholeheartedly. The Regents had hired a premier university president and Coor quickly took charge of ASU in a way that his predecessors had not been able to do. His many accomplishments included aggressively recruiting bright young students from all races, ethnicities and gender from across the state and the nation.

Abstracted from Water, Power, Persuasion: How Jack Pfister Shaped Modern Arizona by Kathleen Ingley, 2015

Jack Pfister Civic Leader

I worked very closely with Jack Pfister throughout my presidency and later at CFA.

Welcome spread from a printed summer program guide for Programs for Talented Youth.

Minority student Enrollment over time

NATIVE AMERICAN

1990: 529

2002: 1,166

2022: 1,538

HISPANIC/LATINO

1990: 2,697

2002: 6,018

2022: 31,816

BLACK/AFRICAN AMERICAN

1990: 1,010

2002: 1,768

2022: 8,016

ASIAN

1990: 1,296

2002: 1,768

2022: 9,475

ALL MINORITY

1990: 5,532

2002: 11,487

2022: 57,647

CONNECTION TO COMMUNITY

When I went to work with United Way, I was so glad to have Lattie’s support. He always advocated for ways in which we could make the community better. Lattie’s approach was always to listen, to mediate among different views, and to find common ground. I liked his approach, and it became my leadership model.

When I think about the four goals that Lattie outlined in his inaugural speech, I know that they’re all important. However, equal access and opportunity was a critically important issue to the community at that time. The generations of leaders before me all point to Lattie as the individual, the leader, who opened ASU to all students, especially kids of color. I say that from a community perspective.

Lattie was the first to make all students feel welcome. He came in and said this would be a priority. Traditionally underserved communities embraced the idea that this university is for all of us. The inclusiveness of ASU today under Michael Crow was built upon the foundation Lattie created. And Michael has been able to keep improving on that foundation. Ultimately, the vision of these two leaders is how ASU grew into what it is today.

There is no greater sign of a true leader than finding the right person to succeed you. That’s what Lattie did. It doesn’t happen often, but it did at ASU.

Paul Luna, President and CEO, Helios Education Foundation

In addition to ensuring that the funding from HB2108 was used for its purpose, increasing minority graduation rates from ASU, Lattie also had a gift for putting the right people in the right position for ASU to meet the rigorous goals set by the Arizona Board of Regents.

Lattie and I met frequently. Early on we talked about Peterson Zah having left the Presidency of the Navajo Nation. Lattie brought him to campus to help support the Native American presence at ASU and to encourage both recruiting and retention. Pete was not only respected throughout the tribal communities of Arizona, but he was also a nationally respected leader. Cal Seciwa, a Zuni Pueblo, was at the American Indian Institute. He originally reported to Chuck Redman in Anthropology. It was Chuck who set up the HB2108 funding to support the program in Anthropology referred to earlier in the book. Cal went on to administer the program and Pete continued to help the Native American leadership understand its importance to the future.

John Lincoln, Director, ASU Project Prime and Office of Youth Preparation (ret.) Member, Navajo Nation

Peterson Zah (Navajo) with two other tribal leaders, Josiah Moore (Tohono O'odham) and Vernon Masayesva (Hopi).

Before Lattie was selected as ASU’s new President, I wrote a note to the search committee about the qualities we needed to find in a new President. One important quality to me was a president’s commitment to making ASU students more representative of people from all levels of society.

Lattie’s connections and ties to the community and the state were so valuable. He spoke fluent Spanish and understood so much about the history and culture of all Arizonans. I felt very relieved that we had a meaningful approach to achieving the level of inclusiveness so important to Arizona’s future.

I served on Lattie’s Minority Advisory Council for years and my wife, Virginia, worked with the Hispanic Mother Daughter Program, which has been incredibly successful. Lattie was instrumental in getting MLK Day celebrated in Arizona, and he worked with Native American leaders statewide.

Michael Crow is carrying on so many things that Lattie started. I remember one of the first meetings for Michael’s search committee. People were talking about what we needed in the next President. Someone in the group said, “We need another Lattie Coor.” Lattie said, “No, we need someone who can take ASU to the next level.”

He insisted on it.

José Cárdenas, Senior University Advisor to the President for Social Embeddedness, Civic Engagement and Special Counsel

“Lattie’s connections and ties to the community and the state were so valuable. He spoke fluent Spanish and understood so much about the history and culture of all Arizonans.”

– JOSÉ CÁRDENAS

Lattie Coor, Peterson Zah and Michael Crow

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day –

established in 1993

Arizona becomes the last state in the nation to declare MLK Day a state holiday, and the only state to accomplish it through a public vote.

“Martin Luther King, Jr. was the conscience of his generation. He gazed on the great wall of segregation and saw that the power of love could bring it down. From the pain and exhaustion of his fight to fulfill the promises of our founding fathers for our humbler citizens, he wrung his eloquent statement of his dream for America. He made our nation stronger because he made it better…”

These thoughts are from the citation of the posthumous award of the Presidential Medal of Honor to Dr. King on July 4, 1977. The words “conscience of his generation” are powerful and extremely well chosen. They embrace the whole spectrum of human rights, unlimited by ethnicity or gender. They speak to the human experience and the nobility of the continuing human struggle for personal and collective fulfillment.

As a university president, I have always been registered as an Independent and have always been cautious about expressing my opinions on any issue that is highly politicized. However, on this issue I felt compelled to speak out and actively support the struggle to get MLK Day declared a state holiday.

I grew up in an era where segregation was ruthlessly enforced in Arizona and watched my father find creative ways to educate people of all color as a West Valley School Superintendent. The problems of today are no less compelling than those of years past.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream was one of personal dignity, freedom and equality for all people. It inspired and changed and transcended a generation. And it lives on. It lives on in the world and lives on in Arizona.

The move to recognize Dr. King with a holiday began not long after the civil rights leader was assassinated in 1968.

Arizona got one black eye after another as the holiday failed at the Arizona Legislature, despite the support of three governors — Bruce Babbitt, Fife Symington and Rose Mofford. Governor Mecham was the only one dead set against it, declaring that King “was not of a stature to deserve a holiday.”

The impact was immediate. Conventions bailed out, and entertainers canceled appearances. The state was labeled racist, bigoted, backward and the equivalent of South Africa in the apartheid era. Yet King’s legacy was being saluted at the local level. At least seven Arizona cities — including Flagstaff, Phoenix and Tucson — had made MLK Day a paid holiday for municipal employees.

The issue had escalated far beyond the question of whether to give state government employees a paid day off. Now the debate was also about Arizona’s identity and its future. Would the state miss the chance to use its changing demographics as an asset, not a liability?

That Western streak of independence was also in play, with many Arizonans bridling at pressure from outsiders.

When Arizona landed the Super Bowl for the 1993 game, there was a condition: Arizona had to have a Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The Legislature scrambled to pass a second version of the bill already on the ballot. The two competing

bills confused voters. Neither passed and the NFL dumped Arizona as host of the 1993 game. It’s hard to overstate the impact of their decision.

Within days of the election, Dr. Warren H. Stewart, Sr., pastor of the First Institutional Baptist Church, held a

gathering to organize the next push to honor King’s legacy. I went to that first meeting and asked to be part of the effort. I didn’t want to lead it; I just wanted to help them build the level of public support necessary for Arizona voters to make the decision directly, bypassing the Legislature. Along with many others, I spent my time helping to connect Dr. Stewart to groups like the Phoenix 40.

“Many Arizona leaders who supported the effort weren’t convinced that a coalition led by me would be able to win the holiday” Stewart said. “Jack was instrumental in saying, ‘Work with this guy.'”

We became the only state to pass a King holiday by a vote of the people in March 1993.

Abstracted from Water, Power, Persuasion: How Jack Pfister Shaped Modern Arizona by Kathleen Ingley, 2015

Jack Pfister, Civic Leader

Martin Luther King. Wikimedia Commons

Dr. Warren H. Stewart, Sr.

A World-Class University ...

I’m going to say one other thing about my Inaugural in 1990. I think that it is symptomatic of the complexity of taking an institution with perceptions that are based on past history, and connecting them to new and highly ambitious aspirations.

Iused in my Inaugural the term “World Class University.” To me that is standard when people talk about what ASU is becoming and can become.

I had a person whom I treasure urge me, having seen the draft, not to use it. He thought it was not appropriate for us to be thinking in those terms. It wasn’t a mean-spirited observation. It was just a kind of “remember who you are,” and I cite it because it just did not recognize our potential and where we were going.

Done right, Metro Phoenix will be one of the great cities in America. It’s got all the elements and they’re starting to come together. Done right, ASU will be one of the great universities in America and I think it’s on its way.

I think the ongoing evolution over the last 20 years by Michael Crow and his ambitious plan to create the New American University has given ASU the chance to do that and be that.

I guess what I’m most gratified about is that I think people now believe what I said in 1990. They no longer think that it would be inappropriate or uppity to say you're going to be a world-class university.

In a Multicampus System

ASU West was created by leaders in the West Valley, and they drove the process.

There was an attempt in the early 60s when Litchfield Park and Goodyear Farms offered land to put the campus there.

There was substantial movement on that idea until there was a legislative reaction to an antiwar moonlight candle parade. That derailed it and probably suggests that it wasn’t the right location, at least at that time.

Its present location was finally chosen and my predecessor, Russ Nelson, embraced it. Dick Eribas, who was then on the faculty in Architecture, went out and did the site plan and construction began.

It is extraordinarily rare to have full facilities and a full faculty before the students are there. Normally you have students hanging out the windows before you have enough facilities and faculty to support them.

The ASU West campus was dedicated in 1991, honoring a 20-year commitment to the West Valley.

I was deeply involved in the community effort to establish ASU West in the mid1980’s. It’s an unusual story because it’s the only ASU campus established by the AZ Legislature rather than the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR).

At the time ABOR was largely comprised of UA alums. They did not want ASU to continue growing and becoming more dominant in Greater Phoenix. I had served in the Legislature for eight years until 1980. I had kept strong relationships and we lobbied hard to get the Legislature to act. They did in 1984.

The story of ASU West includes John F. Long because he owned large tracts of land in the region and he wanted the campus located in Maryvale, the housing community he had built, and he had the land needed for the campus. Long wanted college to be accessible to the families living there. The Phoenix City Council disagreed, and the campus was located at 47th Avenue and Thunderbird.

By 1989, ASU West was ready to open. When Lattie returned to Arizona in 1990 to become president of ASU, I began working with him immediately on issues ranging from degrees offered to student recruiting.

The development of ASU West was a major step in Lattie’s effort to create a modern multi-campus Research I University in one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country. He succeeded.

Diane McCarthy West-MEC Business Partnerships and Legislative Affairs Director (ret.)

ASU WEST

My view from the beginning was that we should be a university that serves the whole of Greater Phoenix.

ASU WEST CAMPUS

To achieve that, I was committed to building a multi-campus system at ASU because Metro Phoenix was growing so rapidly and across the length and breadth of the Salt River Valley. This was apparent to me every time I visited and talked with people during the months that I was still finishing up my tenure at UVM.

At the same time, I was committed to making sure that ASU West, and any other Valley campus we established, would not be “branch” campuses, extensions of the Tempe campus. They would all

be part of a high-quality university system, each offering distinctive features with unique academic, research, economic development and community strengths. It was a very challenging goal but accomplishable. The University of London is one of the rare examples, although global.

In trying to describe who we were becoming, we came up with the term, “One university geographically distributed.” It did not catch on. On campus, among ourselves, the tagline was “ASU all over the place.”

In 1992, John F. Long asked me to help establish the organization that is WESTMARC. There were 15 communities in the West Valley, and they accounted for 35 percent of Maricopa County’s population. But at that time, they had never attempted to act as a unified region.

Each city was competing with every other West Valley community as well as with Phoenix and the East Valley Partnership. WESTMARC was established to help level the playing field. Its mission was to become a coalition committed to advancing public policies that benefited the entire region, especially economic development and education. I served as WESTMARC’S president for 11 years. Most of those years were during Lattie’s presidency. One of his major goals was making ASU research a valuable part of the region’s economic development. I believe we were helpful to one another.

When I think about Lattie’s leadership style, the first word that comes to mind is “collegial.” He knew how to listen, and he values people’s opinions. He was quiet but decisive and very specific in his thinking. Lattie never went looking for attention. He just wanted to get the job done. It was rewarding to know and work with him.

Diane McCarthy West-MEC Business Partnerships and Legislative Affairs Director (ret.)

When asked what I am most proud of in terms of my contributions to ASU during my years there, I think it’s helping ASU think better of itself. When Lattie sent me to ASU West as its new provost, the first thing I did was to meet with everyone I could — what we now call a “listening tour.”

Before Lattie’s administration, the faculty sent to establish ASU West felt like outcasts, the “farm team” for the Tempe campus. The best thing that I could do was help recruit good people and help faculty work to the best of their ability.

We recruited people like Mark Searle, who obviously had the caliber to function very well throughout ASU. We focused on unleashing the power that was there, helping people unleash their own unique potential.

Since ASU West had been created by the Legislature, there had been some talk about whether it should be independent or part of a system. Lattie’s vision was of a world class system that delivered quality in all aspects of its mission. Great achievements like the Research I designation and the growing strength of the Honors College accelerated the growing reputation of ASU and the pride everyone felt in it.

I call it a “virtuous cycle” where good things make more good things happen. Lattie unleashed ASU’s potential and helped ASU sell itself. It’s a process and if done well, things keep happening.

Ben Forsyth Senior Executive Assistant to the President

I like to take bold steps, but I really like to sort them through and I like to have a full understanding of the larger environment before I make a decision.

ASU EAST CAMPUS

In my second or third week as president, in my effort to meet people all over the Valley, an event took place at the Chandler Performing Arts Center. East Valley Partnership hosted the meeting and I had been alerted by Brent Brown, the head of Institutional Advancement, that there was a very strong feeling about an ASU East campus. I’m a pretty cautious decision-maker about the big steps.

In a fairly uncharacteristic way, I had decided that if the West campus was going to flourish as we had hoped it would, there needed to be an ASU East campus. I’d already decided that in my mind but I was kind of hoping I’d have a little time to work it out.

I appeared at a very lively discussion in the East Valley. Eddie Basha, not then a Regent but obviously, then as always, a major leader in the East Valley, was chairing the meeting and Eddie could be pretty direct at times. We got to a point in the meeting and he said, “Now do you support an East Valley Campus?” I said yes, and there was no more discussion.

Williams AFB was not on the screen at the time. There was great concern about it being closed as a military base, so we started planning.

Elmer Gooding and his team in the Provost’s office started looking at what some of the elements really ought to be as a university campus and then in due course, and I don’t recall exactly how soon but within a couple of years, Williams became an option, and it just seemed natural for us to hook the two together. By then we had been able to do a fair amount of more careful thinking about what we would like the campus to be.

Converting a former air force base to a college campus is both exciting and challenging.

In 1994, Lattie asked me to work with Chuck Backus, the interim dean of the ASU College of Engineering and the founding provost of ASU East. At the time, I was the provost of ASU West, and I had experience with all the challenges involved in achieving Lattie’s vision — a multicampus Research I university that could meet the needs of the fastest growing metro region in the country.

Chuck knew the East Valley, and he had led a successful initiative to develop strong community, business and political support for the new campus. But there were many challenges. What distinctive academic programs would best support economic development? What kind of partnership connecting ASU East to community colleges would be most beneficial for everyone?

My experience at ASU West was helpful. Early administrators had flirted with independence from ASU, and they also suggested a separate state college system that would include ASU West, ASU East, and the UA Sierra Vista campus. My goal was to avoid these efforts and ensure that every campus would add to the growing reputation and excellence of Arizona State University. Our collective efforts — the leaders of both ASU West and ASU East — contributed to ASU’s success.

I have observed the progress of all campuses and the Research Park since my retirement in 2002, and I must admit — ASU is an impressive place with a great future.

Ben Forsyth Senior Executive Assistant to the President

When the Air Force officially announced the closure of Williams Field, they asked the Governor to develop a facility reuse plan for the base. It was complex because there were so many stakeholders: the Air Force; the business, farming and tribal communities; the community colleges and ASU.

I served on the planning committee as the only academic and engineer, and because I had been involved in the East Valley for many years.

We ended up developing six alternatives that were presented to every East Valley city. One of the plans was simply to sell the land to developers for more housing. Another was to establish a national airport at Williams to compete with LAX for cargo transport. What we found was strong support for two overarching goals — an ASU campus and a Municipal Airport to serve all cities in the region.

With the help of Ben Forsyth, a set of recommendations was adopted. First, the campus would offer distinct program strengths. Second, the Schools of Technology and Agribusiness would move to the East campus to launch what would become ASU Polytechnic, offering a highly targeted set of BS, MS and PhD degrees. Finally, we would partner with the community colleges to provide the required general study courses.

Over the years, ASU Polytechnic has continued to innovate an array of unique education opportunities — business classes for pre-vet students and health/fitness programs for pre-med. But every opportunity supported the economic development throughout the region and state.

Chuck Backus Founding Provost , ASU East

ASU’s footprint downtown started with the School of Public Affairs.

ASU DOWNTOWN CAMPUS

We began offering evening classes in the State Capitol complex for working people who wanted to get their masters' degrees in Public Affairs. This simple beginning is why ASU had such a good relationship with municipalities.

Brent Brown was ASU’s VP for University Relations and the university’s chief lobbyist at the time. Based on the success of the public affairs presence downtown, Brent was able to get an appropriation from the Arizona Legislature to broaden the effort and establish an ASU Downtown Center.

We leased seven classrooms and two offices in the Phoenix Union High School at 7th Street and Van Buren. Public Affairs moved from the Capitol complex to this new space. Soon Architecture and Nursing joined us. At the same time, we helped launch ASU Polytechnic by offering classes there before it was officially open. We offered classes at ASU West as well. We moved ASU distance learning to ASU online when it became available, and look at it today! Our focus was on helping part-time students and working adults complete degrees by offering the courses they needed in the evening and on weekends in convenient locations.

The goal was to help Arizonans get the education they needed personally, and that Arizona needed in terms of an educated work force. This was probably the best role of Extended Education at ASU in terms of increasing enrollment with increased state funding for the university.

Above: Bette DeGraw in front of the Phoenix Union High School building.

Right: Arizona State Capitol building in Phoenix. Lord Runa

One of my first visits to downtown Phoenix after I became president was with Terry Goddard who was then Mayor. He led me all over and we did a walking tour of downtown. We ended up at the Mercado, and he said, "you should lease this building and move Extended Education here."

There was a great big sign out in front that said “Symington and Company.” Both Terry and Fife had already announced for governor and my answer was, “Don't you feel a little silly promoting a building for your opponent in this race?”

We did lease the facility and later purchased the entire site as a much more visible statement

Entrance to the ASU Mercado campus in downtown Phoenix.

about our real commitment to Downtown Phoenix. That was all part of this notion of building a presence, a set of access points to ASU throughout the Valley.

There was a great deal of support at ASU. Brent Brown was arguing for it very strongly. So was Milt Glick when he came to ASU as our Provost, as well as Ben Forsyth. They all wanted ASU in downtown Phoenix for many reasons, both academic and financial. Working students of all ages needed flexible class availability. And in Arizona, more students meant more public financial support.

ASU Extended Education has a long history, starting with the first class in 1927. But it’s not a deep history. One of the biggest challenges was constant change depending on the university leadership.

The College of Extended Education was created in 1989. Dennis Prisk was named dean and he made me his associate dean. He left when Milt Glick became Provost, and I assumed the Deanship. When Lattie Coor became president in 1990, he was already completely committed to an ASU Downtown presence and to the College of Extended Education. We moved to the Mercado that year.

Ben Forsyth and Jack Pfister were both a tremendous help with the downtown focus. Jack was closely involved with the School of Public Affairs and had such a breadth of experience with his knowledge of the community. He helped us not be so ”campus” focused.

Bette DeGraw

Founding director of ASU Downtown Center

I want to note how closely we always wished to work with ABOR, and with our sister universities at NAU and UA, as well as the community colleges.

ASU Downtown Campus 20 YEARS LATER

We are very fortunate in Arizona that our three public universities are located in three of the state’s major population centers, and we are all together under one governing board. These two features have given us an opportunity to define clear and important service responsibilities shaped importantly by where we are located. It’s also an opportunity to coordinate our efforts so that we can fully and properly serve the state.

I have always declared my personal commitment and that of the university to working as fully as we can to strengthening and advancing those coordinated efforts.

ASU Downtown today is an amazing example of how great things can happen when a University is fortunate enough to have fully committed leadership over a substantial length of time supported by equally supportive community and elected leadership.

For years we talked about the revitalization of downtown Phoenix. The City of Phoenix and the three state universities have made it happen.

T HE POWER OF COLLABORATION

CITY OF PHOENIX

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

NORTHERN ARIZONA UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA

In 2023, more than 144,800 students were enrolled at ASU, with 80,000 attending one or more of the University’s four campuses and more than 65,400 enrolled online.

The Power of Collaboration –ASU, Business and Industry

© Kevin Korczyk

University research parks were all the rage in the 1980’s. The goal was to attract commercial tenants engaged in research and development that meshed with university programs, thus promoting fruitful and profitable collaboration.

As tenants leased land to build facilities, the universities would gain extra income. And as companies expanded, they would create jobs and spur growth.

For ASU, the timing was off. In the late 1980’s, the economy slumped, and so did the prospects for adding tenants. By the end of 1989, less than 10 percent of the land had been leased, and fewer than 500 people were working there. ASU was losing money that could be put to better use.

I was still on the Board of Regents at the time and Lattie had just assumed the presidency. He asked me to see what could be done to reverse the trend and make the Research Park profitable and of academic value to ASU and its faculty.

One big constraint was that the research park could only lease land, not sell it. Potential tenants were skittish about the unfamiliar setup. Another constraint was that the tenants could only engage in research and training. They could not use the park for manufacturing.

My approach was to recruit a Board of Directors, and then hire experienced companies to handle the park’s day-to-day management and marketing. We hired Sunbelt Holdings Management Inc. and PCI Associates Ltd. My strategy was to target local companies first.

Board meetings became a time for people to hear everyone’s views. And I invited scientists from ASU, tenants and prospective tenants to make presentations about their latest projects. I wanted board members to know what ASU faculty were doing and what was at the cutting edge, so they could brainstorm corporate synergies.

We also benefited from a pickup in the economy and the commercial real estate market. Two big catches came in 1992 when Motorola chose ASU Research Park for both its western training site and the headquarters of its flat-panel display division.

Andrew Hurwitz was still a member of the Arizona Board of Regents and one of my recruits to the board of the research park. He was now able to go to Regents’ meetings and report that the research park was no longer going to be a drain on the university’s resources. Now the question was whether it could begin generating revenue for ASU.

I continued working with the Research Park for 15 years and retired from its Board of Directors in 2005.

Abstracted from Water, Power, Persuasion: How Jack Pfister Shaped Modern Arizona by Kathleen Ingley, 2015

Jack Pfister Civic Leader

n 97% LEASED

The ASU Research Park is now 97% leased with only one small parcel (5.46 acres) remaining.

n 16,160 JOBS

The Park tenants generate 16,160 jobs for Arizona residents, provide labor income of $865 million for Arizona workers, and account for $1,418 million of the total income generated by the State.

n 6,000 PEOPLE

Currently, there are 6,000 people in the Park, employed by 60 companies. That does not include ViaSat. When fully built out, the complex will house up to 1,200 engineers and administrative staff in up to three buildings totaling 260,000 square feet.

ASU RESEARCH PARK

I joined Sunbelt Holdings in 1982 and became President in 1990, the same year Lattie became President of ASU.

We got to know one another fairly quickly because I had been involved in the ASU business school since 1984. I wanted to help make the business school more relevant and responsive to the business community. Both Lattie and Dean Penley agreed.

When Lattie asked Jack Pfister to find a way to make the ASU Research Park financially and academically valuable, one of the first things Jack did was ask Sunbelt Holdings to take over the park’s day-to-day operations. Jack was one of my mentors, and I was happy to work with him.

At that time, the ASU Research Park had basically no revenue and significant bond debt. Originally, companies could only do research there. In some ways that was a tough sell on campus to ASU researchers. They felt it was too isolated and they did not want to leave the “mother ship.” That argument was short-lived because ASU West was already open, and ASU East was already into planning. Faculty and departments moving to those campuses faced the same issue.

Happily, a combination of things happened. Jack was able to expand the mission of the Park to include prototyping and testing. These changes made it much easier to recruit business and industry to the Research Park.

One of the best things that could have happened for the ASU Research Park and the Metro area is the incredible

growth of the Engineering program at ASU. When the Park opened in 1985, there were about 3,000 engineering students; today there are 30,000, the largest and most comprehensive program in the country.

The impact on economic development is real. ViaSat is building a new facility in the Park, and it will be a great connection for Engineering graduates. TSMC is building a new chip factory in Northwest Phoenix, largely driven because of the ASU engineering student population. This is one of the largest foreign investments in U.S. history.

Lattie was the right guy at the right time for ASU. So is Michael Crow, but he could never have done what he has done, and continues to do, if not for the foundations that Lattie put in place.

One of the words I use to describe Lattie is “calming.” I‘ve never been around anyone who puts me and everyone else at ease more than Lattie does. I think his Arizona roots are very important. He is very genuine.

Today, the ASU Research Park is a success story. The bonds have all been paid off and the Park is now bringing in revenue of $7-8 million a year. It’s also the first of what Michael Crow calls “Centers of Innovation.” Now there are seven and we meet frequently.

John Graham President & CEO, Sunbelt Holdings

Skysong Innovation Center

ASU CENTERS OF INNOVATION –

Location, Location

ASU Research Park:

Now a vibrant corporate community generating jobs and revenue for Arizona.

SkySong:

A home for entrepreneurs with access to ASU faculty and students, as well as one another.

Phoenix Bioscience Core:

All three of Arizona’s public universities are in one location at the Downtown campus.

ASU West Campus:

Future mixed-use development in fast-growing West Valley.

ASU Polytechnic:

Interdisciplinary tech advancement in booming Gateway region of the East Valley.

Discovery Oasis:

ASU Partnership with Mayo Clinic in North Scottsdale.

Novus Innovation Corridor:

Multiple facilities adjacent to Tempe Town Lake and the ASU Tempe Campus.

Photos: © Kevin Korczyk

The Power of Collaboration –ASU, City of Tempe, Pinnacle West

Lattie’s 12-year presidency and my ten as Tempe mayor overlapped a solid eight years. During all that time, we talked frequently about the relationship between Tempe and the University. I thought it mutually beneficial that Tempe and ASU mature and evolve at roughly the same pace, which was swift. We understood and appreciated the others perspective; a sense of balance in land use and development was top of mind.

There were the usual “town-gown” issues. Some wanted ASU to stay within its existing footprint and not expand beyond it. That was obviously not realistic or feasible given the rapid growth requiring ASU to serve the expanding

population. We talked frequently and agreed more often than not. For example, a project like The Brickyard, ASU’s first brand placement in downtown Tempe was controversial, but I believed the blend of downtown with the university would be far more positive than negative.

We both knew neither the city nor the university could undertake such a transformational project alone.

One macro issue was Tempe Town Lake, which would require the reconfiguration of Rio Salado Parkway through ASU land. This was only one of several major issues and all would require every bit of the relationship and joint leadership we had built.

As mayor, I could not have had a better partner than Lattie Coor. It would be incredibly complex, not an easy lift, not without detractors, and yet forward we went together.

The project forever changed Tempe. The economic development on ASU’s lakefront property has provided additional capacity for the university to accomplish even more for Arizonans. And today, Tempe Town Lake is one of the Valley’s greatest success stories. I’m forever grateful to Lattie, his leadership, and the partnership we shared to make Tempe Town Lake a reality.

Neil Giuliano President & CEO, Greater Phoenix Leadership Mayor of Tempe, 1994-2004

Above: 1998 aerial photo of Rio Salado river bed looking east with Hayden Butte and flour mill on the right. Left: Unloading rolled rubber dam material.

Courtesy of Tempe History Museum

Lattie has always been about bold projects.

The design for Tempe Town Lake began in the 1960’s with a group of ASU Architecture students. It then languished over the next 20 years until Dr. Coor decided something needed to be done about the ugly, dry riverbed which was one of the entry points into Arizona State University.

Lattie had not been ASU’s President for very long before he got the reputation for getting things done.

He pushed forward with the City of Tempe and a real estate company I was involved with, to develop the lake. Suncor committed to build the first three office buildings, to be followed with two large residential buildings. It was the beginning of what you can see today. A Tempe icon with development around the entire lake.

Projects of this magnitude don’t just happen. It takes vision, but as this history shows, it also takes leadership to execute on the vision. This lake has provided a great living and working environment for many people. It will continue to do so, and just like many of the projects he created, it will be here a hundred years from now.

Thank you, Dr. Coor.

Bill Post, Chairman and CEO (ret.), Pinnacle West Capital Corp. Board Member, Center for the Future of Arizona

RIO SALADO PARKWAY

Tevis Photographic

The Power of Collaboration –Industry, Academia, Government

I first met Lattie when I was a professor at the University of Michigan, working alongside a colleague recruited for NIH’s Human Genome Project. NIH is an extraordinary place but I felt it was not as useful if you were interested, as I was, in the intersection of industry, academia and government.

I was committed to founding the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and was working with Price Waterhouse Coopers to build a business plan to present to governors across the country.

Our business plan indicated that it would take $100 M investment to launch TGen, and that meant every sector had to see the value of what we were going to do — the universities, government at many levels, corporations and the philanthropic community.

Arizona was one of the states I was interested in for a number of reasons. First, I was very familiar with Phoenix as I grew up here. Lattie was the president of ASU and he was a legend in many ways, someone who had a real understanding of both national and international research issues. Michael Crow was at Columbia, and he came to see me at NIH.

He was weighing the decision to come to ASU as I was weighing whether to come to Arizona. We talked about the possibilities for TGen, about Lattie and his ability to help

people understand complex issues and to bring people together. We each made our decisions.

The point I want to make is the idea of a biomedical facility of any kind in the Phoenix area needed someone like Lattie to believe this would bring value to Arizona. Lattie is such a gentleman, and the approach he takes to any big effort where he sees value is very effective. He knows how to listen and how to communicate with people. He also believed

that Arizona’s universities were not engaged in enough important research efforts to be competitive nationally.

Lattie and Michael Crow were particularly involved in bringing together the academic community. Eventually, there was a formal commitment from all three universities. This was not trivial, especially 20 years ago. UA President Emeritus Pete Likins deserves credit too. Planning an independent nonprofit medical research facility was not the norm. I don’t know what Lattie did in terms of government support, but he was very successful in bringing industry and the nonprofit sector into our efforts.

One other thing I want to say about Lattie — he’s a man of his word, from my faculty position to everything else we ever agreed on. That trust has extended through Michael Crow’s presidency.

TGen would not be here, and Michael Crow might not be here, without the foundation that Lattie put in place.

“The concept of collaborative biomedical research presents Arizona with exciting opportunities that the state has never had before. The opportunity for the three universities to combine their strengths in a complementary way will make Arizona a recognized leader in the field of bioscience and biotechnology. Working together will enable the state to be on the leading edge of both education and research.”

– Lattie Coor

Jeff Trent, PhD President and Research Director, TGen

Lattie’s support for TGEN repeatedly expressed to Arizona leaders:

TGen headquarters at night.

Photo courtesy of Jason Corneveaux

Left: TGen scientist Haiyong Han, Ph.D., (right) works with a summer intern. Above: Keehoon Lee, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, TGen North and microbiome tech, Briana Coyne.

The Power of Collaboration –ASU, Corporations, Nonprofits, Community-At-Large

I had been thinking about a major capital campaign at ASU since before I had even arrived to assume the presidency. It was going to be necessary if ASU was going to achieve its potential as one of the great universities of the future, and if Metro Phoenix was going to achieve its potential as one of the great cities of the future.

Fundraising had certainly grown in all universities over the last 30 years. My first experience with a campaign was at Washington University when we launched a campaign called "70 by 70" in 1967. We wanted to raise $70 million by 1970, and we did.

I was a young faculty member and then Vice Chancellor during that campaign. The private university had been raising money for quite a little while, but it was kind of a newer part of the focus. The Chancellor and President of the institution, Tom Eliot, was central to that. The university’s endowment when we finished was $280 million. Its endowment today is about $4.5 billion.

I also led a capital campaign at the University of Vermont for $100 million and that was also successful. What I discovered is that a campaign is successful when the major players bring all their various skills and capacities to the table, and weave them together for a goal they believe in.

I believe ASU was a little late in recognizing the growing importance of

capital campaign fundraising, and I just note it was due to the relative newness of the university and the newness of the community it served from a fundraising perspective.

The University of Arizona had been engaged in some fundraising, especially in the Health Sciences, and had completed several modest campaigns — somewhere around $100 million to $150 million. While our consultants recommended a goal of $138 million based on what they felt was feasible, that was not acceptable to me. It certainly was not enough to set ASU on the path I felt was the university’s future.

I have long believed that university presidents are much like symphony conductors — you need the right people with the right skills. Without that, the conductor is just an arm holding a baton.

I recruited a great set of civic and business leaders to serve on the ASU Cabinet Cabinet along with the ASU Foundation President Lonnie Ostrom, and together we shaped the Campaign for Leadership goals. The original goal was set at $300 million, at that time the largest campaign in Arizona history.

The Campaign for Leadership Cabinet: Daryl and Chip Weil, Diane and Gary Tooker, Florence Nelson, Herman Chanen, Barbara and Craig Barrett, Sharon and Don Ulrich, Connie Weatherup, Sally and Rich Lehmann, Nadine and Ed Carson (co-chairs), Jeanne and Gary Herberger, Dinky and Dick Snell (co-chairs) surrounding Elva and Lattie Coor. Not pictured: Jill and Tom Evans, Pam Grant and Dan Cracchiolo, Jerry Nelson, and Craig Weatherup.

When Lattie decided to launch a major fundraising campaign for ASU — the largest in the state’s history — he consulted with many business, civic and community leaders.

Dinky and I were among them. When his study indicated that a major campaign was feasible, Lattie set the goal at $300 million, more than double what the campaign consultants recommended. Lattie asked Dinky and me, along with Ed and Nadine Carson, to serve as campaign co-chairs.

ASU had never launched a comprehensive campaign before, so I thought it was a wise choice. Ed and Nadine were active ASU alums. As business and civic leaders already heavily invested in the life of Greater Phoenix, they had been involved with ASU for years.

Dinky and I were Stanford alums but also very involved in the political and civic activities of the Valley. We also had quite a bit of campaign experience, both at Stanford and with various nonprofits in Phoenix.

One of my responsibilities was to help ready the deans and key faculty for the Campaign. None of them had ever been involved in a major campaign before, and there was a steep learning curve. The faculty and staff rose to the occasion, and the Campaign set the stage for all that was to come.

Dick Snell

Pinnacle West Capital Corp., Chairman Emeritus

Lattie and Elva Coor with Walter and Betsy Cronkite, the national co-chairs of the ASU Campaign for Leadership.

Great Teachers

ASU had made tremendous progress over the last decade in developing nationally recognized programs in a number of fields.

CASE FOR SUPPORT:

But reputation, as always, lags reality. Gifted teachers and scholars are the true measure of a university’s quality, and competition for distinguished faculty was and continues to be fierce in every discipline.

Our goal in the campaign was to create a network of endowed faculty positions that would capture the attention of the nation’s academic community, and serve notice that ASU is committed to making strategic investments in scholars of the highest distinction.

The Great Teachers campaign also supported visiting professor programs to enrich the intellectual life of the University, and executive-in-residence programs that helped encourage new research and curriculum development appropriate to the needs of Arizona employers of the 21st century.

Finally, great teachers attract great students. Both teaching and research are the foundation of a great university. Together they prepare the next generation of leaders and contribute to the success of the communities we serve.

ASU Astronomers

Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen used NASA's Hubble space telescope to image this star-forming region in the Eagle Nebula, 7,000 light years from Earth. The image was chosen as the symbol for the ASU Campaign for Leadership — a defining moment for our future.

“I can’t think of a better place to work than the university — it gives me continual access to highly energetic, intelligent students. My classes are the scientific method in action because I can show my students the kind of cutting edge research we are doing on Mars in real time. The relationship between research and teaching is seamless.”

–

Philip R. Christensen, ASU professor of Geology and Principal Investigator for NASA's $38.8 million Thermal Emission Spectrometer Project, Mars Global Surveyor

We sought to ally with those in this community that realize the more we increase high-quality research, connect that into the technology transfer process and produce high-quality graduates, the more we strengthen the economy of Arizona and the metro area.

IMPACT OF THE GREAT TEACHERS CAMPAIGN: $82,000,000

This was an historic moment for ASU. In just a few short years, we had become one of the nation’s leading metropolitan research universities, having developed further and faster than any other university in the country. We couldn’t have done it without the support of the communities and people we serve.

When I first took office there were 6 endowed chairs at ASU. The success of the ASU Campaign for Leadership allowed us to increase ASU’s endowed faculty positions to 80. We became much more competitive in attracting top faculty.

Our original campaign goal of $300 million was raised to $400 million rather quickly but we didn’t stop there. When all was said and done, the campaign raised more than $560 million.

Nearly 80 percent of the funds came from the metropolitan Phoenix area. That’s a remarkable fact when you consider how inexperienced both ASU and the community were with any kind of university-community collaboration.

You can’t succeed if you can’t compete, and so we simply invested in ways that allowed us to compete in such areas as earth and planetary science, astrobiology, nanotechnology and biomedicine. When you can, there are multiple benefits. You attract more research grants from such sources as the federal government, foundations, business and industry.

Hugh Downs gave the keynote address when we announced that ASU was establishing the Arizona Heritage Chairs to recognize men and women who devoted much of their lives to helping shape the state and the communities of the Salt River Valley.

Dedicated on April 18, 2001

E. N. Basha Sr.

Earnest W. McFarland

Barry Goldwater John J. Rhodes

G. Robert Herberger

Horace Steele

Katherine K. Herberger

Del E. Webb

The Founding Arizona Heritage Chairs

Great Students

ASU is a public university dedicated to encouraging access and inclusiveness throughout the academic community and helping everyone with the talent and skill to succeed.

CASE FOR SUPPORT:

The goal was to more than triple the University’s endowment for scholarships and fellowships from $15 million to more than $45 million, making ASU competitive with other PAC-10 universities.

Private funding would support graduate research programs, student internships and service learning, programs that provide students with “hands-on” opportunities in the communities we serve.

The campaign would support the development of “virtual learning” environments that capitalize on advances in technology, make distance learning, executive education and lifelong learning accessible

to working adults who wanted to complete a degree, ASU alumni, and other partners throughout Arizona and the world.

“I chose ASU because of the Honors College. It offers small classes, a thesis program for undergraduates, outstanding faculty who really want to teach honors students, a summer travel program, undergraduate research opportunities and, of course, scholarship support. ASU provides all the personal attention you expect from a small private college and backs it up with the resources of a major university.”

– Katie Awerkamp, National Merit Scholar, Psychology

A DEFINING MOMENT

In 1990, there were just 11 National Merit Scholars at ASU. In 1999, 132 National Merit Scholars entered the University, the 12th highest among both public and private universities.

IMPACT OF THE GREAT STUDENTS CAMPAIGN: $97,000,000

As a three-time graduate and booster of ASU, I have been involved with several colleges – Law, Liberal Arts & Sciences, Business, Engineering, and Public Programs. Craig and I also served on Lattie’s Campaign Cabinet. We resolved early that ASU would be a high priority in our philanthropy, but we had not disclosed the amount or how we would designate our gift.

We studied the campaign goals for each campus unit and observed that the Honors College had sparse alumni and most were not adequately established in their professions to be significant donors. While other academic and athletic units had variously reached half or even more of their ASU capital campaign goals, the Honors College hovered at only one percent. Yet, we understood Lattie’s strong commitment to the Honors College.

Then one autumn evening after hiking, Craig and I had dinner at Lattie and Elva’s home at South

Mountain. As Elva and I were clearing the table and washing dishes, Craig and I described that we would like to validate the concept of the Honors College at ASU by designating a $10M gift to meet the College’s $10M goal.

Lattie’s surprise and joy instantly had us dancing around the room. At the time, he said it was the largest single gift to the campaign and set a new level of giving.

We hoped the Honors College could become a potent magnet for top Arizona students to pursue challenging undergraduate degrees at home, and that ASU could recruit top students from around the country and the world to ASU’s respected Honors College.

Some months later Lattie asked to meet with Craig and me. He retaliated with his own surprise — that the Regents had decided to rename the college the Craig and Barbara Barrett Honors College. We were so stunned that again we couldn’t contain our tears of joy … and surprise.

Barbara McConnell Barrett 25th Secretary of the Air Force

Founding dean Ted Humphrey surrounded by Lattie and Elva Coor and Barbara and Craig Barrett.

Great Communities

The great universities of the world address the challenges of society in meaningful ways, and ASU aspired to no less.

CASE FOR SUPPORT:

The campaign was a comprehensive effort — encompassing all the campuses, colleges and units of the University. Each one had strategic goals to support ASU’s mission.

Opportunities for investment included new multidisciplinary initiatives in manufacturing and environmental studies. Private funding would also support ASU’s growing strength in biomedicine, dispute resolution, agribusiness, public education and programs to address the growing challenges facing Arizona neighborhoods.

In addition, the campaign included opportunities of special interest to the community-at-large — ASU Athletics, KAETChannel 8, and the restoration of Old Main.

Nearly 80 percent of the support in this campaign came from the local community — people who consider ASU an indispensable part of the Arizona economy and quality of life.

“The surest way to ensure that our citizens have a better life, and our State and nation thrive, is to support the development of caring, public school communities where teachers and students jointly create knowledge and foster understanding.”

– David C. Berliner, Regent's Professor of Education and former Dean of the College of Education

IMPACT OF THE GREAT COMMUNITIES CAMPAIGN: $381,000,000

The ASU Campaign for Leadership was truly our defining moment for the future, a community partnership that will launch us into the next century and set our course for generations to come. The campaign was to be about people: worldclass teachers and researchers, the best students in Arizona and beyond, and the best programs to enhance the quality of life in central Arizona and throughout the state.

It’s almost impossible to overstate the contributions of three volunteer groups: the ASU Campaign Executive Committee working directly with me under the leadership of Dick and Dinky Snell, and Ed and Nadine Carson; the ASU Foundation board members under the leadership of Don Ulrich; and our business and industry partners here in the Valley — Motorola, Intel, the banks — I can’t think of any major business group that did not support what ASU was trying to accomplish.

Overall Campaign Giving Sources:

The most exciting aspect of working at Arizona State University during the campaign was not just where we were, but what we were becoming. We progressed, we came a long way in a short period of time, but we still had work to do.

Milt Glick

Former ASU Sr. Vice President and Provost

Source: From Normal School to New American University, a history of the Arizona State University Foundation

JULY 1, 1995 – DECEMBER 31, 2001

$560M raised and 77 new faculty positions added, forever changing the future of Arizona State University.

Growing Sun Devil Athletics

I was the assistant football coach at ASU when Lattie came in 1990. My standing in the athletics department wasn’t high. I remember coming out of a concert at Sun Devil Stadium. Lattie was there with his daughter and niece, and he looked at me and said, “Hi Don.” Now how would he know who I was? I understood from that point forward that Lattie was going to build bridges; he was going to be somebody for all people.

As I got to know Lattie, I found out his father played football for the Arizona State College Bulldogs. His mother had tickets to ASU football games and attended well into her later years. By that time I was president of the Sun Angel Foundation. It was important to me to take care of her.

Part of a university’s identity is in athletics. That’s how it works in America. Lattie understood that and never tried to limit us in any way. He was a lifelong athlete himself, but an academic as well, and he was comfortable with both. When ASU became a Research I university, we were on our way.

Lattie built a bridge to athletics and made us feel that Athletics, and student-athletes, were an important part of the university. But he wanted them to graduate, and we were most appreciative.

Don Bocchi, Past President, Sun Angel Foundation

I had never been at a Division 1 university before I came to ASU, but I was not unprepared.

Ihad been deeply involved in NCAA affairs when I was president of the University of Vermont. At UVM, the dominant sports were hockey, skiing, and men’s and women’s basketball. It’s not surprising in a state like Vermont. Since they had eliminated their football program, I did what I always do — I asked questions and talked to a couple of university presidents, an NCAA executive director, and a former athletic director.

I was warned that ASU was a far more difficult place athletically than most. They believed that

the university had put its athletic success ahead of its academic success or the academic success of its student-athletes. They also believed that the control being exerted by the athletic boosters was unhealthy in a collegiate program.

There are universities whose reputation is their athletic program, and they are universities whose reputation is a successful blend of both academics and athletics. The latter are the Duke’s, the Michigan’s, the Stanford’s and the USC’s of the world. Universities like ASU that are struggling but determined to build their

academic reputation find it especially difficult when they have such an established and successful athletic program.

My predecessor, Russ Nelson, was very focused on academics, and he was determined to rebalance the university’s reputation.

Russ appointed Charles Harris as ASU’s Athletic Director for two consecutive terms. It was not a popular decision with some alumni, but there were issues with gambling, personal assaults, and personal behavior issues among the studentathletes. It took time to clear it up, but Charles was able to do it. In my view, he is one of the unsung heroes of ASU.

When I first came to ASU, I questioned why the Athletic Director reported directly to the President. None of the Deans reported to me. I soon came to understand.

I’m not going to get on a high horse about society’s values but I guarantee you, we had five times the number of press show up for a discussion about athletics than we ever had for any other major news event at the university.

When ASU entered the PAC-10 in 1978. John Schaefer, president of UA engineered that, thank goodness. It was

one of the most important things that could happen to us. But it was a struggle. One ongoing challenge was increasing the graduation rate of studentathletes.

I have often been questioned about how much of my time was taken up with athletics. Not as much as you might think. Charles Harris was a very good athletic director. Kevin White was a very good athletic director. Gene Smith was a very good athletic director. We all agreed on our goals and it helped ASU immensely as an up-and-coming public research university.

Charles Harris Kevin White

Gene Smith

When I see what ASU is today, it reminds me of how far ASU has come since I was recruiting athletes to ASU before Lattie. When we were sitting in someone’s home, the first thing we had to do was overcome ASU’s party school reputation. I had to reassure families that their student could get a great education at ASU, and it was hard in the beginning.

Two things that changed things immediately under Lattie’s leadership were the Research I designation and the growing size and strength of the Honors College. First and foremost, Lattie wanted our athletes to be student-athletes.

Education is the backbone of democracy. My parents were first-generation Americans. My mother and aunts were educated, and we had a better life because my mother was a teacher. Everyone else in our community had to work in the steel mills. Education is our way out.

Lattie’s father understood that students need help to succeed. Lattie is a natural bridgebuilder, and he could unite faculty around bold efforts like the Honors College and the multi-campus effort. Michael Crow came to campus many times before becoming our president. Lattie built that bridge as well, bringing Michael to the presidency.

Don Bocchi

Past President, Sun Angel Foundation

I had known of the historic competition between the University of Arizona and ASU since I was a youngster growing up here.

My sense, in returning to the state after 32 years, was that in some ways it had reached unhealthy proportions in recent years.

I was aware when I first came to ASU that the Arizona Board of Regents and the Legislature had historically been more heavily represented by people who were supporters of, or at least identified with, the University of Arizona.

I did not find that in my presidency.

Yes, there were obvious moments when the competition was fierce. For example, we explored and put on the table to the Regents a proposition in 1993-94 to create a new medical school here in Phoenix. It was

gunned down by the Tucson delegation.

To be honest, there’s never been a medical school proposed that an existing one didn’t oppose. But look what’s happened today. The growing population of Arizona, largely in the Greater Phoenix area, made it clear that we needed another medical school, and it happened. The human need for access to medical care required it.

I found during my presidency a willingness to work together with UA, especially at the faculty level. Faculty members want colleagues in their field and when they’re just 90 miles away, that’s an asset in a young state like Arizona.

Lattie and I had overlapping presidencies twice. When he assumed the presidency of the University of Vermont, he was very young. I became president of Lehigh University, a small, private research university five years later.

We got to know one another when we worked together on NCAA reform. NCAA at that time was an autocracy, one man ran it. We formed a president’s council because we felt we had a responsibility to become primary guides to changing the leadership there. Lattie and I worked on that effort, and I developed a respect and affection for him way back then in in the early 80’s.

We became good friends. That friendship and trust continued when Lattie became president of ASU in 1990 and I became president of UA in 1997.

Pete Likins

President Emeritus, University of Arizona

I came to ASU in 1990, but we didn’t really have full use of the Territorial Cup until 2001 when Pete Likins and I signed a formal agreement between ASU and UA establishing a Territorial Cup Protocol. Unfortunately, we lost the next game and I had to hand the Cup over to Pete!

It has always been my belief that direct and active competition should be restricted to the playing fields. But I do wish to say that regardless of how many years have gone by, I always say to our friends from the UA, you’d better watch out for us!

Top: ASU football team on steps of Old Main with Territorial Cup in 1899.

ASU VS. UA

ONE OF THE GREAT FOOTBALL RIVALRIES

1899

“The first ever football competition between UA and the Tempe Normal School took place on November 30. The symbol of that rivalry was the Arizona Territorial Football League Championship Cup, known as the Territorial Cup.”

1900-1983

“It was assumed that the Cup resided in the ASU President’s office, but the actual location remained unknown until it was discovered in the closet of the First Congregational Church of Tempe in September 1983.”

1984-1995

“President Russell Nelson wanted the cup returned and on permanent display in the University Archives Reading Room.”

1995 - 2001

“The Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport Museum borrowed the cup for a display regarding ASU football history, anticipating the thousands of fans who would be attending Super Bowl XXX in 1996. Two UA alums noticed the cup and they consulted the NCAA record books and determined the Territorial Cup was the oldest inter-collegiate rivalry trophy in the United Stated. They wanted the cup to be brought to the UA campus to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Big Game in 1899.”

“Lattie Coor made the decision that the Territorial Cup would henceforth be shared by ASU and UA such that each year the winner of the game would be awarded the trophy.”

“The symbol of that rivalry was the Arizona Territorial Football League Championship Cup, known as the Territorial Cup.”

Abstracted from the Journal of Western Archives, “Fading Silver: The Territorial Cup, the Arizona Football League and the Mystery of the History,” by Robert P. Spindler, 2014

Honorary Degrees

Awarded by ASU President Lattie F. Coor ( 1990-2002 )

The first honorary degree was offered by Oxford University in 1478. Harvard University followed in 1653, and the academic tradition proudly continues to this day.

During the Coor presidency, 60 honorary degrees were recommended to the Faculty Honorary Degree Committee, approved and then awarded. Coor’s philosophy of honoring individuals was a confirmation of what he believed the individual, or in some cases the couple, had done to advance both society and Arizona. While some were friends and donors to the University, their support reflected their belief in the importance of ASU to the future of the region and state.

Perhaps the most poignant event surrounding the awarding of the honorary degree was the dinner held the night before graduation. Coor described the event as en familia — a gathering of family and friends of the recipient. One of the most moving was the dinner celebration for

Cesar Chavez. He brought his entire extended family of 15. It was very moving.

One other memorable moment was the awarding of an honorary degree to author Tony Hillerman. The English Department gave him a bound copy of Jim Chee’s fictional master’s thesis. Inside the beautifully designed cover were lots of blank pages!

William Arnold ASU faculty (retired) and former chair of the Faculty Honorary Degree Committee

Yuan T. Lee May 1990

• G. Robert Herberger May 1991

• Frank X. Gordon

May 1992

• Tony Hillerman May 1992

• Alan Pritsker May 1992

• William Pedrick

Marvin Morrison Aug 1992

• Karsten Solheim Dec 1992

• Louise Solheim

Dec 1992

May 1993

• Daniel Nagrin Dec 1992

• Dwight Patterson May 1993

• Polly Rosenbaum May 1993

Paul Elsner Dec 1993

May 1994

• Jesse Jones

• Edward Carson Aug 1993

• Rose Mofford May 1994

• Keith Turley Aug 1994

• Maxine Marshall Dec 1994

• Herman Chanen

• Virginia Ullman Aug 1994

• Jonathan Marshall Dec 1994

Jesse Jones, May 1993

ACADEMIC TRADITION

Margaret Gisolo Dec 1994

• Edward Bud Jacobson May 1995

• Florence Nelson Aug 1995

Aug 1996

May 1997

• William S. Shover May 1996

• Chang-Lin Tien Dec 1996

• John F. Long Dec 1996

• Newton Rosenzweig Aug 1997

Carey Aug 1998

• Rita Dove May 1995

• Ernest Boyer May 1995

• Gary L. Tooker May 1996

• Paul J. Fannin May 1997

• John P. Frank Dec 1997

• Norman William Fain Dec 1998

Eddie Basha May 1999

• Raul Yzaguirre May 1999

E. Weatherup Dec 1999

May 2000

• Frank J. Sackton

• Jack W. Whiteman

• Craig R. Barrett May 1998

• Leon Howard Sullivan

• Alfredo Gutierrez

• Barbara McConnell Barrett May 2000

• Nadine Severn Carson Aug 2000

L. Roy Papp Dec 2000

• Marilyn Papp Dec 2000

• Alice “Dinky” Snell May 2001

H. Johnson Aug 2001

Lewis Dec 2001

May 2002

• Lamonte H. Lawrence

• L. William Seidman

• Richard Berlin Snell May 2001

• Delbert Ray Lewis Dec 2001

• Jerry Colangelo May 2002

• John R. Christian Aug 2002

• Jewel McFarland

• Rex G. Maughn

• Bob Stump Dec 2002

• William P.

Chang-Lin Tien, Dec 1996

Jewel McFarland Lewis, Delbert Ray Lewis, Dec 2001

Rita Dove, May 1995

Jerry Colangelo, May 2002

Alfredo Gutierrez, Dec 1999

Cesar Chavez, May 1992

What’s Next for ASU and Arizona?

I had now been at ASU for 12 years and believed it was time for the next generation to take this university to an even higher level of quality in every aspect of our mission.

With the successful conclusion of The ASU Campaign for Leadership, I was once again thinking about retiring as a university president. In reflecting on my years here, I’m going to say one final thing about my Inaugural Address. I used the term “World Class University” to address what I believed is the future of ASU. I had a person whom I treasure and think the world of and will leave unnamed, who urged me, having seen the draft not to use it. Thought it was not appropriate for us to be thinking in those terms. It wasn’t a mean-spirited observation, it was just a kind of “remember who we are,” and I cite it because it was not deprecatory. It just did not recognize our potential and where we were going.

Done right, Greater Phoenix will be one of the great cities in America. It’s got all the elements and they’re starting to come together.

Done right, ASU will be one of the great universities in America and I think it’s on its way.

I think the evolution over the last 20 years in the very clear focused ambitious plan that Michael Crow has in the New American University, all give it the chance to do that and be that. I guess what I’m most gratified about is that I think people now believe it. They don’t think that it would be inappropriate or uppity to say we’re going to be a world class university.

At ASU, much of our current institutional design and advancement can be found in the vision Lattie had for the university’s future.

A native Arizonan, Lattie understood the state’s originality — that unique blend of individualism and independence. His leadership set the foundation for a period of great change.

Today, ASU has indeed grown into that world-class university he envisioned, one that combines excellence, access and impact, now serving almost 200,000 degree-seeking learners. And in 2023, for the ninth year in a row, ASU was named the most innovative university in America.

Lattie’s leadership set the stage for research to soar, and his legacy began a transformation that led to ASU being selected in 2023 to the prestigious Association of American Universities, which includes the nation’s truly elite

research universities such as Stanford, MIT and Johns Hopkins.

ASU is the New American University — an outcome made possible by the work years ago of an original son of Arizona, a man who saw the university as a reflection of all that is good about America’s 48th state.

Michael Crow ASU President

Not too long after I left the presidency and spent a sabbatical year at Oxford, I did an interview with the ASU Retiree’s Association. It was a wonderful opportunity for me to speak to so many issues that matter to every university president I know.

IT TAKES TWO DECADES

One of the questions was about my strong belief in the future of ASU and Metro Phoenix. I am powerfully influenced to this day by the people who shaped this city and this state. When I came here, I said quietly to a few friends, “If ASU could put together two decades back-to-back of clear, focused leadership, it will be one of great universities.” Well, ASU has now had three decades of that level of leadership and look where it is today!

MY GREATEST CHALLENGES

1

For me personally, the biggest problem I had was time management because there was so much to be done and while I am a very strong delegator — I believe in giving the leadership on the team a lot of running room — this presidency took a lot of personal time.

2

I worked very aggressively to get faculty, staff, students, business and industry leaders as well as the community-at-large to have a reasonable understanding about what this university was and what it was doing. I think that’s true for any university, but it was especially true here.

3

It’s hard to define quality in a university that is substantially and financially defined by quantity.

I can’t tell you how often I heard the criticism of long lines, large classes, inattentive instructors. It made us look like a huge factory that was not being very student attentive. I had to find a way to help people realize that you can be very large and still have the highly regarded qualitative programs within the University. The Barrett Honors College is the best living example of that. The students are remarkable when they enter and even more remarkable with what they accomplish after graduation.

Source: Abstracted from the ASU Retiree’s Association interview of Lattie Coor in 2006.

A Few Thoughts On Leadership

Given who I am and how I try to go about things, I believe the best way to proceed is to set a clear agenda — a bold agenda.

But it can’t be just my agenda. I want a lot of fingerprints on it from the people who can make it happen. At the same time, I believe strongly on insisting that we keep making progress on the goal. As I’ve said before, I’m holding the baton, but nothing happens unless all the musicians and all the instruments are working together.

I was asked when, as a young man, I moved from the faculty to the administration, if I’d miss teaching. I said, “Well, then you don’t understand what I’ll be doing in administration.” It’s a teaching job as well as a leadership job. I spend a lot of time talking about what we are doing and why we’re doing it, meeting again and again with various constituencies. I learn in the process and help others learn where we’re going. That’s why I talk to as many people as I can. Sometimes they alert you to something you need to be thinking about. You can’t imagine how hard that is because a president’s time is measured in teaspoons. But I tried as often as possible to walk around campus for at least 15 minutes at a time. I talked with students as much as I could and after a while, they would recognize me and come to say hello, ask questions. I found it very valuable.

THE POWER OF VOICE

When I think back over all the years of Lattie’s presidency, one of the thoughts that come to mind is “the power of voice.”

Lattie’s responsibility as ASU’s president was to speak on behalf of the University to the Board of Regents, the Governor’s Office, and the Legislature. He speaks on behalf of the University to the many private sector leaders who employ our students and fund our programs.

Lattie accepted other responsibilities as well. He used the power of his voice during times when people were living a common experience. The time that comes to mind most frequently is 9/11 and the grief and fear that affected the people of Arizona and the nation so deeply. Lattie’s public remarks at that time brought comfort to both the campus and the community.

Lattie’s fluency in Spanish and his initiatives, also “gave voice” to a population that was often under-served and under-heard. He reached out regularly to the state’s Spanish speaking residents, encouraging young people to become first generation college graduates, forever changing the whole upward trajectory of their families.

Christine K. Wilkinson

Senior Vice President, Secretary of the University, President and CEO of the ASU Alumni Association

A President’s time is measured in teaspoons.

COMMUNICATION AND STYLE

Lattie’s way was to speak your language, not speak his language to you. One challenge with many leaders is they stop listening because they get to a point where they think they are so good they don’t need to listen. Without exception their performance declines.

One of the many trips my wife and I took with Lattie and Elva was to visit Craig Weatherup in the Adirondacks. We flew into Boston, rented a car and on the way stopped in Burlington, VT. We did a little tour of UVM—this was 20 years after Lattie had left—and we stopped at a restaurant for lunch. There were about 20 people sitting in there. We walked in and people started recognizing Lattie. We tried to have lunch but got interrupted time after time by people wanting to talk with him. And he enjoyed listening and reminiscing with every one of them—all of whom he remembered.

You can get very focused, very driven to get a PhD, and you’re only “this wide.” To be the other way, to get wider, you have to lose arrogance. If you just stop taking advice and learning because you think you know it all, it’s very easy to get encapsulated. You can become isolated if you only talk to those who agree with you. You always want to listen and observe; it’s fundamental to success. Lattie illustrated leadership through listening.

Bill Post, Chairman and CEO (ret.), Pinnacle West Capital Corp., Board Member, Center for the Future of Arizona

SET LOFTY GOALS

Lattie favored lofty goals. Then he achieved them.

When he initiated ASU’s thenaudacious $300 million capital campaign, many predicted disappointment. With Lattie’s leadership, ASU not only met that goal ahead of schedule but upped its aspirations to $500 million and blasted through even that elevated mark.

Lattie also set lofty personal goals. When a heart attack sidelined him early in his tenure at ASU, his hospital room overlooked a canal bank where bicyclists passed regularly. Lattie was inspired; he resolved to bicycle across Arizona north to south over 600 miles, from Monument Valley along the Coronado Trail, topping out at 9,200 feet, and continuing south to Douglas on the Mexican border. Craig and I joined Lattie on this forerunner of his many bicycling adventures.

Characteristically, Lattie achieved his lofty goals while having fun. He wove ASU into the fabric of the community beyond Tempe and recruited Sun Devil advocates who were alumni of other, even rival, schools — or of no school at all. It’s no surprise that Lattie set ASU’s course toward today’s leadership in innovation and global impact Lattie Coor's legacy is a testament to the transformative impact of lofty goals achieved through unwavering determination — while making the journey enjoyable for all.

Barbara McConnell Barrett 25th Secretary of the U.S. Air Force

THE VIRTUE OF GREAT LEADERSHIP

A virtuous leader is challenged by the responsibility to leave their community a better place. The leaders whom I have admired, and Lattie Coor is one of them, have been those who leave a legacy of transformation.

In a university, it is a challenge for a leader to focus outwardly. Constituents often focus on their own needs. It has been said that students believe the university exists for students, that faculty behave as if the university exists for them, but the university truly exists for everyone it serves. That service includes strengthening the civic institutions that sustain our democracy, nurturing qualified, knowledgeable labor — its graduates — and energizing research with the new ideas that foment prosperity.

To achieve community transformation, a leader needs both a design and tools. President Coor’s four pillars were his design. And a great leader’s rhetoric will speak to the human spirit with hope about the institution’s gifts to the community.

This is the virtue of great leadership — to serve the community and to make a real difference in the lives of the people it serves. Not all people have this capacity. Not all of those who lead possess the moral foundation essential to transformation. But great leaders do.

Larry Edward Penley Regent, Arizona Board of Regents

Dedication of Coor Hall

I had no idea that ASU was going to put my name on a new building that was going up on campus.

Iknew it was under construction — Elva and I had walked through it a month or so before the dedication, but I did not see the signage until we arrived for the event.

I had nothing to do with the planning for this building but one of the problems we were working on when I stepped down as president was the University’s need for more space as well as dealing with some structural issues we discovered in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. This new building is quite large and solved several problems.

What I love most about Coor Hall is the fact that it’s a “teaching” building. There are more than 20 classrooms in it as well as computer labs and conference rooms. I forget what fraction of undergraduates at any given time are taking a course here, but it’s 10 or 15 percent. When you consider the size of the Tempe campus, I’m very pleased that it serves so many students.

Michael, Sybil, Elva and I are good friends as well as professional colleagues.

Courtesy of Spectrum Engineers

AN ENDOWED CHAIR

Shortly after my retirement, I had the very great honor of receiving an endowed chair. I want to mention two things about this honor that were important to me.

An endowed chair gives you the freedom to work across the University and collaborate with other faculty on issues of common interest. I wanted to teach graduate seminars in the School of Public Affairs, and it was important to me to be able to take a multi-disciplinary approach on public policy with my students.

The other important thing about the chair is that it is named for Governor Ernest McFarland. I knew him as a youngster, and I believe he is a far greater figure in the history of this state than many people realize. He’s one of the reasons — along with Barry Goldwater and all the others — that we established the Arizona Heritage program as part of the ASU Campaign for Leadership.

I was very proud to hold the Ernest W. McFarland Arizona Heritage Chair in Public Policy for the rest of my academic career.

Past presidents, left to right: Eugene Hughes, NAU 1979-1993, Paul Sypherd, UofA Interim 1997, J. Russell Nelson, ASU 1981-1989, Pete Likins UA 1997-2006, Lattie F. Coor, ASU 1990-2002, Michael M. Crow, ASU 2002-present.

Earnest McFarland

CENTER

FOR THE FUTURE OF ARIZONA

Thinking About the Future of Arizona

I did not have a carefully laid out plan for what I wanted to do after leaving the ASU presidency, but two or three things were clear to me.

First, Elva and I would remain in this community. It is our home, not just our birth home, but our home. Second, I wanted to remain active with issues of importance for this community and for Arizona. If I could combine that with teaching and being an active member of the faculty, that would be ideal.

A couple of years before I stepped down as president, I began trying to find ways to connect the richness of the university’s research and recommendations to actual implementation. Universities are very good at recommending things, that’s what they do. But there’s usually a mismatch, a gap between the folks that have to carry all this stuff out and those that recommend it. So I was interested in seeing what we could do to fill that gap.

I tinkered with what kind of organization it might be and talked with a few people about it. In the year following my retirement announcement, two or three of those with whom I talked said, “You ought to do that.” Indeed it was clear to me that if we could put together the right organization that I would be willing to spend some time with it, and we did. Sybil Francis and I created a 501(c)(3) called Center for the Future of Arizona. I took the position of Chairman and CEO on the grounds that, in time, if we were successful, I’d like to have a CEO take over and I would continue to work with it.

I met Lattie in spring 2002 when I was visiting Arizona with my husband Michael Crow who was being recruited to be the next President of ASU. Lattie was stepping down as the then President and had already submitted the legal paperwork establishing the organization that would fulfill his dream of giving back to his home state of Arizona — Center for the Future of Arizona.

I was eager to find a way to connect to my new home state and community and to put my professional skills and interests in public policy to work having spent most of my career in the Washington, D.C. policy arena.

Lattie and I had lunch at the Tempe Mission Palms — I remember the beautiful Arizona spring day — and we had an immediate meeting of the minds. I was excited to embrace this opportunity but really didn’t fully grasp that I was signing up for something that would change the course of my life for the next 21 years and counting. I’m proud of the work I’ve done working side by side with Lattie to build Center for the Future of Arizona since that fateful lunch.

Sybil Francis Chair, President and CEO Center for the Future of Arizona

One thing that had stimulated my thinking was the privilege I had of serving on a commission that the Kellogg Foundation put together called the Commission on the Future of American Public Universities. Twenty-five university presidents met together over five years. Most agreed that we needed to find better ways to engage the capacities of the university with the community, especially as it related to issues that affected the overall health of society.

I also believed strongly, much as I admired and supported what Michael Crow was doing, that a “used” President ought to get out of sight when the new president takes office.

So I moved downtown to the Mercado into leased space, and then renovated it and got it already for us to start six months after I left the presidency.

It so happens that my faculty appointment — and I’ve had a faculty appointment all along — was in the School of Public Affairs and most of the teaching by this time was at the downtown campus. It turned out to be perfect for me to combine my offices as professor with my work for the new Center. Part of our operation was funded by the Center from our private funding efforts and part of our facilities and activities were funded by the university. Sybil and I recruited a Board of Directors, including Bill Post, who still continues to serve on the Board today. Our only employee for the first couple of years was Lin Phillips, who came with us from ASU. Two of my closest colleagues and advisors — Ben Forsyth and Jack Pfister — also agreed to continue working with us to establish the Center.

CFA MISSION

Center for the Future of Arizona brings Arizonans together to create a stronger and brighter future for our state. We listen to Arizonans to learn what matters most to them, share trusted data about how Arizona is doing in those priority areas, bring critical issues to public attention, and work with communities and leaders to solve public problems.

CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF ARIZONA

Bill Post, Sybil Francis, Lattie Coor and Lin Phillips at the Mercado in downtown Phoenix.

Ben Forsyth

Jack Pfister

Center for the Future of Arizona

I was teaching a graduate seminar in the Spring of 2003 that focused on the question, “How does one create a vision for Arizona?”

Surprisingly, to most people, states don’t have visions. Yet we know that organizations in highly competitive environments can’t function without a vision of who they are and what they want for the future.

Our hope was that the graduate seminar would tie directly into how CFA could try to do something about the need for Arizona to have a vision. The seminar became an examination of the conceptual and practical questions about what kind of leadership models we might find that would help us create a functional vision in Arizona.

Envision Utah was perhaps the most advanced work we found at the state level. Their process used interviews, mapping exercises, surveys, and other means to find out what residents wanted most for the future.

We set out to do something similar, but our first step was to study significant Arizona policy reports published over the last 15 years, and then we combed them for recommendations. The reports were from Arizona Town Hall, Morrison Institute, Goldwater Institute, Udall Institute, gubernatorial commissions, etc. We came out with 200

recommendations from 50 reports and organized them into a single page. To give it some legitimacy we then went to cities, counties, towns, Chambers of Commerce, leadership organizations like Greater Phoenix Leadership, Greater Phoenix Economic Council and got them to endorse it.

This vision was endorsed by cities and towns, counties, councils of government, business organizations, education organizations as well as other public and private entities.

Omersu Krugosku

The following full-page presentation appeared in The Arizona Republic on Sunday, March 20, 2005.

A VISION FOR ARIZONA

Dear Fellow Arizonan,

The future of Arizona is in our hands. The doubling of Arizona’s population to 10 million people over the next 20 years offers unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Decisions made today will shape the economic, education and social outcomes of tomorrow. Earlier generations of Arizonans had the foresight and wisdom to build the Salt River Project and the Central Arizona Project. What will be the legacy of our generation? What kind of Arizona will we shape for our children and grandchildren? It is up to us to decide.

To guide our thinking and decision making, the Center for the Future of Arizona distilled the wisdom of 15 years of reports and recommendations from our state’s leading organizations and engaged civic and political leaders throughout Arizona in crafting the vision statement printed here. We invite your organization’s endorsement and urge all Arizonans to join in our next steps to promote bold statewide and local initiatives that will help us realize the vision and our hopes for the future.

To be one of the best places in the nation to live a rewarding and productive life.

To fulfill the promise, Arizonans must commit to these interrelated goals:

• OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL •

Provide substantial support for talent of all ages and backgrounds.

• QUALITY OF LIFE

Enhance all aspects of Arizona’s physical and cultural environment.

• KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY

Become an internationally competitive “innovation” economy.

How to make this happen:

• LEADERSHIP •

Develop citizen engagement and leadership appropriate to our contemporary society.

• INVESTMENT

Establish a tradition of investment by public and private sources.

Lattie F. Coor

Sybil Francis

After a Vision for Arizona was published as a full page in the Arizona Republic, Lattie and I toured the state together. It was during those travels he and I made together across Arizona that I realized I would never ever know as many people as Lattie knew in Arizona.

It seemed that in every town, meeting hall or venue we found ourselves in, and whomever we were meeting with, Lattie always found a personal connection and reveled in those uncovered relationships. He had played football against someone’s cousin, known another person’s brother, or his mother had taught their father. He had a connection to virtually everyone we met. Lattie was Arizona.

We felt proud of “A Vision for Arizona’s Future.” The framed Republic document still hangs on our office wall today. It certainly impressed a lot of people, and it was endorsed by a lot of leaders and organizations. But frankly it fell a bit flat. It was a good effort but was missing a key ingredient and that missing thing was the voice of Arizonans. It was a top-down document and we needed to build a vision for Arizona from the bottom up. Though we were pleased with our work, we weren’t satisfied.

I quickly became convinced that CFA was Lattie’s passion project.

As long as Lattie served as president of two very different universities — UVM and ASU — CFA was the longest professional commitment he ever made. I quickly became convinced that Center for the Future of Arizona was his passion project. I don't think he, or I, could have ever imagined the scope and impact of our work over the next 20 years.

Sybil Francis Chair, President and CEO Center for the Future of Arizona

CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF ARIZONA

Arizona is a place of many distinct cultures, environments and ways of life.

Arochester13

One of the hardest things for young people is trying to decide what to do with their lives. The easiest thing for me to say, and the hardest for them to understand, is to find and follow your passion.

It’s hard because they’re still trying on identities and experiences, trying to develop that internal gyroscope that keeps asking, what is it that I really like to do? And what is it that I want?

Do I want to build things? Do I want to work with people? Do I want to have an impact on society? Do I want a high-quality lifestyle? Do I want to create my own company? The list goes on and on.

Let me use myself as an example. I thought about politics. I thought about teaching, and I thought about academic administration. I had an opportunity in my formative years to try each of those on and that really helped me make the choices I made.

How can you answer the question without having different kinds of experiences and not just in

Getting an education is about more than classroom learning — it’s also about first-hand experiences with different people and different work environments.

With a big name — Center for the Future of Arizona — some good intentions and a few generous early sponsors, we knew without much reflection that education would have to be an important part of our portfolio of work.

We both wanted important change — systems change — even if we didn’t call it that from the start. Change that would have a significant impact on how things worked so that we could have better outcomes across the major areas of importance to Arizona’s future.

Education was high on our agenda — how could it not be? How could we be successful as a state without a great education system and bringing everyone along? The Beat The Odds program — our first — grew out of significant original CFA research and a passion to make a difference in communities where educational outcomes needed to improve, ones whose educational outcomes were too often sadly predicable by their zip code.

This was the first and earliest example of CFA’s taking on a major system — in this case Arizona’s education system.

Sybil Francis Chair, President and CEO Center for the Future of Arizona

Samantha Chow

Beat the Odds is another example of Lattie’s influence on Arizona public policy.

The idea for Beat the Odds came from the question: “Can Arizonans ever agree on what it takes to fix Latino schools — and do it?”

The “Five Shoes” report identified the lack of Latino educational success as a huge hole in Arizona’s future prosperity. And when state leaders never came together to form a cogent policy response, I took an innovative research idea that might find an answer to this challenge to Lattie at the Center for the Future of Arizona. The idea was to use Jim Collins’ methodology from his bestseller Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t (2001) to explore how Arizona could reverse the existing trend in Latino educational achievement.

Lattie immediately understood the possibilities. If a study modeled after Good to Great could provide a persuasive account of what it takes to fix Latino schools, it might actually engage business leaders in fixing Latino education policy in Arizona. Through his connections, Lattie contacted Jim Collins, told him about the project and asked his advice. Collins saw great value in the project and agreed to advise us.

The goal was to identify successful poor, Latino schools, compare them to similar but less successful poor, Latino schools, and try to understand what sets the two groups apart. The methodology worked. As reported in Beat the Odds (Why Some Schools with Latino Children Beat the Odds…and Others Don’t, 2006), the matched-pair school comparisons yielded many insights, a number of them contrary to conventional wisdom. But one key insight was that successful schools really do things very differently than unsuccessful schools. The research unearthed six elements of success that set the “beat-the-odds” schools — schools showing leaps or steady improvement in reading and math scores over a lengthy period of time — apart from other schools.

Mary Jo Waits Associate Director, ASU Morrison Institute for Public Policy, 1990-2004

Sybil Francis, Lattie Coor and Beat the Odds researcher/author Mary Jo Waits.

The goal was to identify successful poor, Latino schools, compare them to similar but less successful poor, Latino schools, and try to understand what sets the two groups apart.

When Beat the Odds was released in 2006, it was a perfect example of how Lattie wanted to bridge the gap between important new research and implementation. He never wanted the Center to be a “think tank.” He wanted a “do tank.”

We created the Beat the Odds Institute in 2007 to work directly with schools to bring the six principles into low-income, high minority schools, and then to help schools put them into practice. The Beat the Odds Leadership Academy was established in 2017 to provide principals and school system leaders with executive leadership training.

We’ve now trained more than 650 school and district leaders in eight counties and we continue to grow the program. We work with public school districts and charter networks that understand the importance of leadership development. This is key to Arizona’s future. Teachers matter, school leaders matter. The latest research shows that effective principals have a major impact on student achievement and teacher success.

Other examples of our hands-on approach include helping young people explore and prepare for future careers through Pathways to Prosperity. The Arizona Personalized Learning Network reimagines learning to support the success of every child. In Participatory Budgeting, students learn democracy by doing and vote to fund school improvement projects.

The original Beat the Odds report, taking research into action, set the course for all CFA’s future programs.

Amanda Burke Executive Vice President, Center for the Future of Arizona

BEAT THE ODDS SIX KEYS TO SUCCESS

DISCIPLINED THOUGHT

1 Clear Bottom Line.

The Beat the Odds schools emphasize the achievement of every student in every classroom and take responsibility for that performance.

2 Ongoing Assessment.

Most schools track results only through test scores on mandated tests and graduate rates — which typically come at the end of the year when it’s too late to turn things around.

DISCIPLINED PEOPLE

3 The Strong and Steady Principal.

Principals help schools succeed by staying focused on student success. They keep pushing ahead, no matter what the roadblocks.

4 Collaborative Solutions.

The Beat the Odds schools create effective teams who tackle problems together and with responsibility distributed among teachers and staff.

DISCIPLINED ACTION

5 Stick with the Program.

Successful schools pick a proven program that the teachers can embrace and stick with it over time, using student performance to make changes to the program as required.

6 Built to Suit.

The research question was simple: What does it take to get great results in educational achievement in a school with a student enrollment that is mostly Latino, mostly poor, and has many students who are still learning English?

The successful schools place a relentless focus on individual performance — a vital cycle of instruction, assessment and intervention — followed by more instruction, assessment and intervention.

Gallup Arizona Poll – 2006-2009

The Arizona I found on assuming the presidency of ASU in 1990 presented a reassuring picture of the community I knew growing up here 35 years before.

Over the next few years, leaders from government, business, nonprofits and higher education worked separately and together to develop an agenda for Arizona that would move the state forward. Initiatives were planned and a variety of efforts undertaken. But progress overall was slow and with mixed results.

There was also a growing disquietude as to where Arizona was headed, with numerous pleas for strong leadership that could force a positive agenda for Arizona’s future. But what we increasingly came to understand was not a lack of leadership.

What was missing? The Voice of Arizonans

To capture that perspective, we needed to recognize that most Arizonans now had access to thousands of news and opinion outlets. Increasingly

driven by polls and public opinion surveys, democracy had been driven downward. In the book, The Future of Freedom, Fareed Zakaria noted that from the far left to the far right, persuasion in the 21st century requires leaders to directly seek and quantify the thinking of larger and larger groups of people as well as an increasing number of small but highly influential special interest groups.

I knew we needed to talk to Gallup, the gold standard in public polling. Gallup had the history, reputation and capacity to deliver very low margins of error. I had to have that to make the data as difficult to challenge as possible. I knew it would be costly but saw no other way to document the “hard to argue with” data of what Arizonans wanted for their future. Gallup approaches big questions from the perspective of behavioral economics — what causes people to make the decisions they make and what are the factors that influence them? Working with Gallup provided us with a starting set of “actionable insights” drawn from one of the largest research projects ever undertaken — the Gallup World Poll — and, also critical to our goals, the Knight Foundation’s “Soul of the Community” Surveys.

Flagstaff

Tucson

Yuma

Prescott

The best cold call I ever made

GALLUP POLL METHODOLOGY – WHO PARTICIPATED?

n 4 groups of Arizonans from Tucson and Greater Phoenix met with Gallup staff to test questions and ensure that both the questions and the language Gallup used would be neutral and meaningful to Arizonans.

n Personal interviews were held with individuals and families from across the state to capture their personal thoughts about their hopes for the future.

n A telephone survey of 3,606 Arizonans included enough cell phone numbers to capture the views of younger people. The questions were drawn from Gallups extensive “question bank” that allowed their analysts to compare Arizona responses to other states and regions.

n A final Web survey of 831 people (who had participated in the telephone survey) were asked to consider different policy approaches to a set of issues using a “forced choice” methodology.

This methodology produced an incredibly low margin of error — less than 2% on telephone poll, less than 1% on web.

The Gallup Arizona Poll was largely conducted in 2007-2008. The Arizona We Want was released in 2009 and reflected that these were tough years in America and Arizona due to the recession.

The Gallup Arizona Poll was the first critical step in building a citizens’ agenda with clear goals that were grounded in the minds and hearts of the people who live here.

When Lattie talked with me about doing a citizen survey to find out how people felt about life in Arizona, we agreed that it had to be conducted by Gallup. When I asked him what he wanted me to do, he said “Call Gallup.”

I did the next day and within a few minutes I was talking with Jon Clifton. When I explained what Lattie wanted to do, he said “We’ve never had a state ask us to do that before.” I explained that Lattie was very interested in the Gallup World Poll. Jon suggested that we might also want to review the work they were doing with the Knight Foundation and their study in 26 cities on emotional attachment to place and its correlation to a region’s prosperity.

At that time, Jon was the Deputy Director of the Gallup World Poll. He talked with Lattie several times, and within a few weeks I was on a plane to Washington.

It was an extraordinary experience. I met with Jon and within a few hours a Gallup team began planning a study that would not only capture the thoughts of Arizonans living in the metro areas of Phoenix and Tucson but would also reflect the hopes of people living in five smaller Arizona cities as well as the rural areas of the state. It would capture people’s thoughts by age, ethnicity, gender, income and educational attainment.

Pat Beaty Senior Fellow Center for the Future of Arizona

Mesa Tempe Tribal Communities

SIX OVERARCHING RESULTS

1 CONSENSUS

Arizona citizens agree on more than we disagree.

2 ATTACHMENT

Arizonans are surprisingly attached to their communities.

3 AESTHETICS & NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

The state’s natural beauty and open spaces are seen by citizens as our greatest asset.

4 LEADERSHIP

Citizens are not at all satisfied with their elected leaders.

5 JOB CREATION

Like the rest of the world, Arizona residents want jobs.

6 OPPORTUNITY

Arizona is not a great place for young college graduates.

How good is your community for different groups of people?

Percentage of people who give their community or area “5—very good”

citizens

with young children Creative people

citizens

and ethnic minorities

from other countries

with young children Creative people

and lesbian people

talented college graduates looking to enter the job market

Racial and ethnic minorities Immigrants from other countries Gay and lesbian people

Beauty or physical setting

How would you rate the following in the city or area where you live?

Availability of outdoor parks and trails

Percentage of Arizonans who give their community or area “5—very good”

City or area where you live as a place to raise children

Beauty or physical setting

Overall quality of colleges and universities

Availability of outdoor parks and trails

Being a good place to meet people and make friends

City or area where you live as a place to raise children

Availability and accessibility of quality healthcare

Overall quality of colleges and universities

Availability of cultural opportunities

Being a good place to meet people and make friends

Highway and freeway system

Availability and accessibility of quality healthcare

Availability of a ordable housing

Availability of cultural opportunities

Vibrant nightlife with restaurants, clubs, bars, etc.

Highway and freeway system

Overall quality of public schools in your community

Availability of a ordable housing

How much people in your community care about each other

Vibrant nightlife with restaurants, clubs, bars, etc.

of the elected o cials in your city or area Availability of job opportunities

Overall quality of public schools in your community

How much people in your community care about each other Leadership of the elected o cials in your city or area

Availability of job opportunities

The Gallup Arizona Poll was conducted in 2007-2008 — right in the middle of a recession. Economic downturns challenge us to think about how we can emerge stronger and more sustainable. Arizona leaders were calling for new investments and policy changes on a number of issues, but Center for the Future of Arizona wanted to know which ideas had the support of citizens.

Issue One: Help Arizona Students

Prepare for the Jobs of the Future

Key Finding: Only 19% of Arizonans rate their public schools as “very good” and they recognize that “one size does not fit all.”

Which ONE of the following ideas would be the best use of your tax dollars?

Offer school-based programs that allow students to gain academic and career preparation skills that are customized to meet their individual needs.

Issue Two:

Make Healthcare More Available and Affordable

Key Finding: There is little disagreement about the importance of making health insurance available to all Arizonans.

Which ONE of the following ideas would be the best use of your tax dollars?

Offer insurance programs that are publicly available with payment assistance for those who need it.

Issue Three: Increase the Number of Quality Jobs in Arizona

Key Finding: Citizens favor two ideas – job training programs and lower business taxes.

Which ONE of the following ideas would be the best use of your tax dollars and/or private sector funding?

Fund more job training programs in high school and beyond, including programs for unemployed adults.

Lower business taxes to encourage companies to bring jobs to Arizona and to keep jobs in Arizona.

Issue Four: Build the Infrastructure Arizona Needs for the Future

Key Finding: Citizens favor adopting water management plans statewide and they want the natural environment preserved.

Which ONE of the following ideas would be the best use of your tax dollars and/or private sector funding?

Adopt a water management plan that protects water supplies for the ENTIRE state.

Issue Five: Help Arizona Become More Energy Independent

Key Finding: Arizonans favor investing in technology and facilities for solar, wind and other renewable energy sources but recognize that it will require a significant publicprivate partnership.

Which ONE of the following ideas would be the best use of your tax dollars and/or private sector funding?

Invest in the technology and facilities needed for solar energy, wind energy and other renewable energy sources.

CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF ARIZONA

The Arizona We Want Progress Meters

2016-2019

ARIZONA EDUCATION PROGRESS METER LAUNCH

In 2016, CFA partnered with Expect More Arizona (now Education Forward Arizona) to launch the Arizona Education Progress Meter.

Following extensive community collaboration and shaped by survey research identifying education as Arizonans’ top priority, the meter became the state’s widely accepted framework for evaluating P-20 education and serves as a pivotal tool for data-driven decisions aimed at achieving educational goals.

Source: Shaping Arizona’s Tomorrow 20th Anniversary Impact Report, 2023

Amanda Burke, Executive Vice President, Center for the Future of Arizona

EDUCATION

Metrics: Quality early learning, academic performance, postsecondary attainment, and more

Knowing deeply what Arizonans care about was not enough. We needed to measure and report on how we were doing in each critical area. We needed data that was trusted, accessible and useable to leaders and communities.

Out of this need grew the Arizona Progress Meters, a set of tools that include curated metrics and reliable data to inform communities and help leaders make better decisions. After all, we know that what gets measured gets done. CFA now has a full set of progress meters, one for each of the key areas identified through the survey research.

One of the most utilized and impactful is the Education Progress Meter, developed in partnership with Education Forward Arizona and which has been used by schools, communities and others across the state to make investment and educational programming decisions to improve student outcomes.

Sybil Francis Chair, President and CEO Center for the Future of Arizona

The Arizona Progress Meter logo represents the eight topics Gallup identified by Arizonans as important to their quality of life.

CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF ARIZONA

I am fanatical about BHAGs. As in Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goals as defined by Jim Collins in Built to Last.

JOBS

Metrics: Job growth, wages, unemployment, underemployment, and labor participation

HEALTH & WELL BEING

Metrics: Access to Primary Care, Health Insurance, Healthcare Cost Barriers, Obesity, and more.

NATURAL RESOURCES

Metrics: Water supply and demand, open space conservation, forest treatment, and more

CONNECTED COMMUNITIES

Metrics: Volunteerism, community participation, and neighborhood involvement

YOUNG TALENT

Metrics: Cost of living, workplace benefits and culture, quality of higher education, and more

CIVIC PARTICIPATION

Metrics: Voter participation, political discourse, democratic engagement, and more

INFRASTRUCTURE

Metrics: Public transportation, traffic congestion, broadband access, roadway access, and more

I was struck by this guiding principle about how to get things done. BHAGs are the means to an end. The end in my mind being a better future, with greater opportunity for the residents of Arizona.

The first BHAG we set was for the quality of Arizona’s public education system. We wanted to move Arizona into the top quartile in the U.S. by the year 2020. Currently, Arizona still sits in the bottom half, but now we have a clear progress meter developed by multiple partners who agree on what to track. Improvement is slow but it is happening through the power of collaboration.

Because of our partnership with Gallup for most of 20 years, we know what Arizonans care about.

no illusions that we can do this by ourselves. We can only make things happen through collaboration and engagement with civic and political leaders in developing a statewide agenda focused on the things we truly care about. Because of our partnership with Gallup for most of 20 years, we know what Arizonans care about.

The Arizona We Want Progress Meters are an important tool in setting and tracking our progress toward achieving the quality of life that Arizonans want.

Center for the Future of Arizona is a bold name for a small organization and we’re under

Abstracted from an article in the Tech Connect magazine that featured an interview titled “Down to the Coor,” by Kathy Sacks, 2005.

COMPREHENSIVE PORTFOLIO OF ARIZONA PROGRESS METERS DEVELOPED AND RELEASED

CFA expanded its portfolio to support community planning and decision making across all Arizonans key issue areas. Developed through a multi-year effort in partnership with experts and community leaders, the progress meters provide web-based tools that are built on trusted and regularly updated data to help inform decision-making.

Source: Shaping Arizona’s Tomorrow, 20th Anniversary Impact Report, 2023

CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF ARIZONA

Gallup Arizona Poll – 2020-2021

Second Survey and Report

We again found huge agreement among Arizonans on the issues most important to the state’s future, including education, workforce, healthcare, sustainable environmental practices, fair and just systems, immigration, and civic health.

We identified seven Shared Public Values which are defined by those issues on which over 70% of Arizonans across the state and demographics agree.

It’s important to know where we have common ground so that we have a place to start in building a positive agenda for action and constructive change.

Ten years after the first Gallup Arizona Survey we decided it was time to field a second survey to update our earlier findings.

ARIZONA’S SHARED PUBLIC VALUES

1 EDUCATION

A highly educated and skilled population

2 HEALTH AND WELLBEING

Affordable healthcare that covers preexisting conditions and provides accessible mental health services

3 JOBS AND ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

Good-paying jobs and the education and training needed for all Arizonans to fully participate in a vibrant economy

4 ENVIRONMENT & SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

And it gives us the facts and data we need to counter the pervasive narrative of polarization and division that infects so much of our public dialogue.

CFA’s commitment to “doing” continues in this work as we bring trusted data to communities and leaders to inspire them with hope and arm them with the facts to take actions that are meaningful to them.

Sybil Francis Chair, President and CEO Center for the Future of Arizona

Sustainable practices that protect our air, land and water, and support a high quality of life for all

5 CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

Civic engagement that solves problems and democracy that works for all

6 FAIR, JUST AND EQUITABLE SYSTEMS

Fair, just and equal treatment for all people

7 IMMIGRATION REFORM

Comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship and support for “DREAMERS”

CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF ARIZONA

OUR APPROACH TO ADVANCING THE ARIZONA WE WANT

PRESERVE THE COMMON GOOD:

Foster unity among Arizonans for the common good, building bridges of trust and understanding.

POSITIVE IMAGE FOR ARIZONA:

Continue shaping a positive image of Arizona, celebrating both its diversity and Shared Public Values to leverage its strengths and address its challenges.

INFORMED DECISIONS:

Ensure that decisions impacting Arizona’s future are based on facts, not politics, and that all Arizonans’ voices and collective wisdom are heard.

Helping people be heard is a core value at Gallup. Therefore, when we come across leaders who elevate the voices of others, we take special notice. This was precisely the case in 2006, when we received a call from Pat Beaty and Lattie Coor.

These pioneers from the Center for the Future of Arizona reached out to Gallup with a distinct mission: “Our goal is to forge a brighter future for Arizona, starting with engaging the entire state in a meaningful conversation.” Achieving this was no small feat, but it was possible.

Over a decade later, the results of our collaboration have significantly influenced Arizona’s leadership, all stemming from the voices of its people.

Yet, this initiative revealed more than just collective aspirations — it showcased the heart of Lattie’s leadership style. Characterized by active and thoughtful listening, Lattie’s approach was integral to the project’s success. He not only tuned into individual voices but also embraced the collective wisdom of the community. In doing so, he emphasized the value of each perspective, demonstrating that our combined insights are vital for a flourishing future.

The world owes a deep debt of gratitude to Lattie. His dedication has laid a solid groundwork for Arizona’s path forward. His life's work and leadership style continue to be an inspiration for all of us.

Jon Clifton CEO, Gallup

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT:

Empower the public to actively participate in decisions that impact their future.

NONPARTISAN LEADERSHIP:

Continue to ensure

Arizonans’ Shared Public Values are central to CFA’s priorities and maintain nonpartisan credibility and unbiased focus in guiding Arizona toward a brighter future.

Lattie’s vision for a trusted organization that could have a meaningful impact on the future of Arizona, based on solid research, delivering on promises, and engaging the broader community has been realized, perhaps even beyond Lattie’s wildest dreams.

CFA is now firmly established in the constellation of organizations important to Arizona and will continue to serve this state for years to come.

I was honored to be named President and CEO in 2018 and recently appointed by the CFA Board to serve as Chair, just as Lattie did.

Sybil Francis Chair, President and CEO, Center for the Future of Arizona

CATALYZE ACTION:

Share trusted data and advance solutions to achieve the priorities of Arizonans.

Source: Shaping Arizona’s Tomorrow, 20th Anniversary Impact Report, 2023

CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF ARIZONA

In Lattie’s earliest thinking about a new organization, he originally wanted to call it Center for the Future of the Valley of the Sun, largely because of his humility. He was quickly persuaded that to have the impact we wanted, it really needed to be Center for the Future of Arizona. And wow. That really created a big mandate for us.

Lattie coined the term “do tank” to describe what he wanted CFA to be — an organization that would take good ideas grounded in solid research and turn them into action. He had seen good research at universities sit on shelves in research reports but having little impact. He wanted to change that.

Lattie began working with Jack Pfister in 2002, and we opened our doors in early 2003 at the Mercado complex downtown. While Lattie put some finishing touches on the paperwork, his assistant Lin Phillips and I picked out furniture. Truly! We were starting from scratch.

How does someone become a CFA Board member?

In the beginning, Lattie and Jack recruited them but it was a slow and careful process. Today there’s a Board committee that makes recommendations. We have a Board of proven leadership, all of whom are truly committed to our goals.

Sybil Francis, Chair, President and CEO Center for the Future of Arizona

Jack Pfister (2002-2009)

Civic Leader

PREVIOUS CFA BOARD MEMBERS

Nadine Basha (2003-2009)

Founding Chair, First Things First

Sybil Francis Chair, President & CEO, Center for the Future of Arizona

José Cárdenas (2002-2004, 2009-2022)

Attorney, Lewis & Roca General Counsel, ASU

CURRENT CFA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

George Dean (2003-present) President & CEO, Greater Phoenix Urban League

Don Smith (2016-2023)

President & CEO, Copperpoint Mutual Insurance Co. (ret.)

Paul Luna (2005-present) President & CEO, Helios Education Foundation

Ruth McGregor (2009-present) Former Chief Justice, Arizona Supreme Court

CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF ARIZONA

Bill Post (2009-present)

Chairman and CEO (ret.), Pinnacle West Capital Corp

Katosha Nakai (2021-present) CEO, Tribal Policy People, LLC

Ron Shoopman (2017-present)

Southern Arizona Leadership Council, Director of Special Projects

Lisa Loo (2022-present) General Counsel, Arizona State University

Jill Harrison (2021-present)

General Counsel, Medical Products Division, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. (retired)

Dan Costello (2023-present)

Executive Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer, Phoenix Suns, Phoenix Mercury, Footprint Center

The Center continues to recruit outstanding leaders to establish CFA as a trusted bridge to help connect citizens to leaders in both public and private sectors.

Lattie F.

Coor

Founding Chair Emertus

Carmen Heredia (2021-present) Director, AHCCCS

Lori Higuera (2023-present)

Assistant General Counsel, Freeport-McMoRan, Inc.

I had been on the ASU President’s Office staff for about 7 years when Lattie arrived. He was accompanied by several of his staff from UVM, including his secretary Arlene Hershenson, his Sr. Executive Assistant Ben Forsyth, and his housekeeper Joan Thompson and her family. I recall thinking what a close bond they must have to take a leap of faith to move their lives across the country to work with him. It was very inspiring. I soon felt the same as we formed a new kind of “work family” in which I would play a larger part than I could imagine.

Later, I also took a leap of faith, leaving my position in ASU administration to go into non-profit work with Lattie at CFA. I already had 12 years of learning his leadership style and the daily support he needed, so that was the easy part.

In 20+ years at CFA I had experiences that never would have happened had I stayed on the Tempe campus. It has been a career full of excitement, satisfaction, rewards, and fellowship — along with the stress that comes from trying to do it all because I care about Lattie’s and Sybil’s goal of a vision for Arizona. I have had the good fortune to work with wonderful, dedicated, brilliant people in an organization that is making a difference.

Lin Phillips

Executive Assistant to President Emeritus Lattie Coor

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY

Looking to Our State’s Future

When I first came to Arizona, many wondered how long “the guy from New York” would stay. After I had been here for more than a decade, Lattie asked me, “What is it about ASU and this state that has kept you here so long?”

The answer is simple: ASU and Arizona are places of tremendous opportunity. Building on the strong foundation created by Lattie and buoyed by Arizona’s wonderful entrepreneurial spirit, it was easy to see a future that encouraged innovation, exploration and excellence.

Today, ASU is a national leader in research, innovation, engineering, business, sustainability and so much more. We’ve helped to restore fragile coral reefs undersea while also launching missions to an asteroid in deep space.

As I reflect on all that has changed in the last 20 years, it triggers memories of my high school relay team — the four of us sprinting

and handing off the baton to one another. In the same way, Lattie, after advancing ASU in his 12 years as President, passed the baton to me yelling “carry on” as I began sprinting to match his speed.

I thank Lattie immensely for getting ASU to that point in the race. And I know that everything we have accomplished so far would not have been possible without his leadership and desire to innovate, explore and excel. Thank you, Lattie, for a race very well run.

Michael Crow President, Arizona State University

CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF ARIZONA

Creating the Arizona We Want

This book has been a wonderful journey through the remarkable life and career of a remarkable man. As so thoroughly documented in these pages, Lattie is beloved and admired throughout Arizona and he has returned the favor in spades. He knows its people intimately, loves its rugged and unique beauty, and has wanted so much for the state he calls home.

There is perhaps no purer expression of his legacy for Arizona than Center for the Future of Arizona (CFA) to which he devoted the last twenty years of his career. Embodying his love of Arizona and his desire to give back, CFA grew from an idea Lattie had in spring of 2002 to a fully mature statewide organization exceeding even his wildest dreams. And all this after he retired from Arizona State University! Committed to bringing Arizonans together to create a

stronger and brighter future for our state, CFA is dedicated to the greater good for Arizona, deepening our understanding of who we are as Arizonans and making a difference in education and in so many other arenas.

It has been an honor for me to have worked side by side with him from the beginning on this important leg of his journey, and I carry the baton forward proudly. Thank you for all you have done for Arizona, Lattie.

Sybil Francis Chair, President and CEO, Center for the Future of Arizona

Phillip Hamlin

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Dave Tevis

Photography and Photo Research

Everyone on this team has worked with Lattie Coor for many years — first at ASU and the ASU Foundation during his presidency and later at CFA. Working with Lattie and Elva on this book has given all of us the opportunity to learn so much more about Lattie’s values and how they informed his incredible career.

This book is about leadership and collaboration, and it’s only natural that Lattie invited so many of his friends and colleagues to share in the storytelling. It couldn’t have happened any other way. Our thanks to all.

Lattie and I began working on this book early in 2020. In 2022 we were fortunate to join forces with a great team to complete it. In these years I learned more about Lattie as we recorded his memories and those of his friends and colleagues from UVM, ASU and CFA. Their perspectives give me a new appreciation for being part of the story. It’s been an incredible journey and I share in Lattie’s joy and feeling of accomplishment.

We are particularly grateful for the support of ASU and CFA in the creation of this wonderful book.

During Lattie’s tenure as president, I was knee-deep in designing donor communications and collateral materials to promote his most transformative fundraising initiatives — from the Campaign for Leadership to Elva's President’s Community Enrichment Programs and so many others.

Lattie certainly brought out the very best in people. I did my career-best work while at ASU and watched my coworkers enjoy professional success as well — a testament to Lattie’s leadership and the positive impact he had on all of us.

Sidebar Contributors

William Arnold

Chuck Backus

Barbara Barrett

Craig Barrett

Don Bocchi

Gena Bonsall

Gretchen Buhlig

Amanda Burke

José Cárdenas

Anne Christensen

Jon Clifton

Larry Coor

Michael Crow

Bette DeGraw

Anne Donahoe

John Fees

Ben Forsyth

Sybil Francis

Grady Gammage

Neil Giuliano

John Graham

Ted Humphrey

Pete Likins

John Lincoln

Paul Luna

Diane McCarthy

Larry Penley

Jack Pfister

Suzanne Pfister

This project honors Lattie Coor, someone who has done so much for Arizona. I worked with Pete Vogel and Lattie for many years at ASU and then again with Pat Beaty at Center for the Future of Arizona on the Gallup report and two subsequent updates, the 5 Communities report and the Young Talent Progress Meter. Lattie is always easy to work with and the end results never disappoint. This book will showcase Lattie’s many accomplishments and the respect and love of so many people who worked with him. Including me.

Bill Post

Chuck Redman

Colleen Jennings-

Roggensack

Dick Snell

Dinky Snell

Jeff Trent

Mary Jo Waits

Christine Wilkinson

Pat Beaty Project Manager, Research and Editing

Pete Vogel Creative Direction, Design and Photo Research

Lin Phillips Research and Editing

CONTENT SOURCES

Lattie Coor’s comments in this book are his, conveyed in his writings and as documented in all the many sources that captured his words.

BOOKS

• The Arizona State University Story by Ernest J. Hopkins and Alfred Thomas, Jr., 1960

A history of education in Arizona with a personal note to Lattie Coor by Alfred Thomas, Jr., on the inside front cover written 30 years later.

• The Coor Family: Wagons to Rockets, Chauncey and Cleo Coor, 1989

• La Cuesta, Arizona State Teachers College (NAU), Annual, 1958

• The Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., Foreword by Lattie F. Coor, edited by Al McHenry, ASU 1992

• From Normal School to New American University: A History of the Arizona State University Foundation, 1885-2012, by Dean Smith and Marshal Terrill, 2012

• A New Campus for a New Century, ASU East, “A Collection of Stories and Memories by the People Who Were There,” Collected and Compiled by Charles E. Backus and Terry C. Isaacson, 2021

• Voices of the Campus – a supplement to The History of Northern Arizona University, 1946-1979, By Dr. J. Lawrence Walkup, President Emeritus, 1984

• Water, Power, Persuasion: How Jack Pfister shaped modern Arizona, 2015, by Kathleen Ingley

• Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, 1994

• Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't, Jim Collins, 2001

INTERVIEW AND MEETING TRANSCRIPTS

• ASU President Michael Crow Meeting with President Emeritus Lattie Coor, 2018

• ASU Retiree’s Association – Video interview 2006

• ASU Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity, Fall 1990 – Fall 2022

• ASU 10 Year Perspective Data, 1989 – 2000

• Down to the Coor, TechConnect magazine, Kathy Sacks, 2005

• How to Set Goals and Defy the Odds, Carey Pena Podcast, 2017

• Tempe Historical Museum Oral History project, July 2008 interview with Aaron Monson

• Arizona History makers Oral History Transcript, 2018

SPEECH TRANSCRIPTS AND PERSONAL ESSAYS

• Thoughts on my decision to accept the ASU presidency, Lattie Coor, May 14, 1989

• Inaugural Address of Lattie F. Coor, Arizona State University, March 15, 1990

• Remarks to the Campus on 9/11, Lattie Coor

• Thoughts on the future of Arizona, Lattie Coor

• Lattie Coor’s address to the academic assembly, Sept. 4, 1996

REPORTS

• ASU Foundation Campaign for Leadership reports

• The Arizona We Want, Gallup Poll, Center for the Future of Arizona, 2009

• The Arizona We Want: The Decade Ahead, Gallup Poll, Center for the Future of Arizona, 2021

• Beat the Odds, “Why Some Schools with Latino Children Beat the Odds and Others

Don’t,” by Mary Jo Waits, published by Center for the Future of Arizona and Morrison Institute for Public Policy, March 2006

• Five Shoes Waiting to Drop On Arizona’s Future, by lead author, Mary Jo Waits, published by Arizona State University and Morrison Institute for Public Policy, October 2001

• Shaping Arizona’s Tomorrow, 20th Anniversary Impact Report, Center for the Future of Arizona, 2023

• Journal of Western Archives, “Fading Silver: The Territorial Cup, the Arizona Football League and the Mystery of the History,” by Robert P. Spindler, 2014

NEWSPAPER and MAGAZINE ARTICLES

• ASU Insight, “Campaign Support Exceeds Expectations,” January 25, 2002

• ASU Insight, “Diversity, Quality Center of Coor’s Legacy,” May 25, 2001

• ASU News & Information: “Lattie Coor Accepts McFarland Chair,” April 27, 2004

• ASU State Press, “Students may have new friend in President Coor,” Feb. 1, 1990

• ASU State Press, “The new president gets high marks at home, on the job,” March 15, 1990

– continued on next page

NEWSPAPER and MAGAZINE ARTICLES continued –

• Arizona State, “ASU’s new President On the Job,” Summer 1990

CONTENT SOURCES

• ASU State Press, “Coor made president, outlines ASU priorities,” March 16, 1990 Arizona Republic, “The old bosses are gone, but tough jobs await civic entrepreneurs,”

Nov. 20, 1990

• Arizona Republic Editorial, “ASU Losing Great Leader: Coor Transformed University,”

May 16, 2001

• Arizona Republic, “Coor’s departure from helm will be ‘big loss, end of era,” 2001

• Arizona Republic, “Goodbye from ASU chief,” May 10, 2002

• Arizona Republic, ASU classroom building named for former president,

January 7, 2004

• Arizona Republic, What You Should Know About Arizona by Arizonans, Sunday, Feb 13, 2012

• Arizona State Alumni Magazine, “President Lattie Coor: Getting Down to Business,” Sumer 1990

• Arizona State Alumni Magazine, “A decade of difference,” Fall 1999

• Burlington Free Press, “UVM’s Lattie Coor Meets Franklin County,

August 27, 1976

• Burlington Free Press, People-watching: Lattie Coor, Sept. 12, 1988

• Phoenix Business Journal, “Coor put Diversity, Vision to Work,” September 11, 1998

• Phoenix Business Journal, “Valley must play catch-up on workforce, education,”

May 3, 2002

• Phoenix Business Journal, “Business community celebrates Lattie Coor era,” May 1, 2002

• Phoenix Business Journal, “Lattie Coor: He’s Just Begun,” May 5, 2002

• Tempe Daily News Tribune, “ASU’s Coor puts personal touch on job,” March 11, 1990

• Tempe Daily News Tribune, “Coor draws praise for 1st Year,” Jan. 11, 1991

• Tempe Daily News Tribune, “Coor comes home to ASU, Arizona,”

March 10, 1990

• University of Vermont Newsletter, “UVM Arts and Sciences Building to be named after former President Lattie Coor,” February 8, 2013

• Washington University Magazine, “Soaring,” Fall 1974

• Web Devil, “Lattie’s Legacy: A Look at Coor’s 12 Years at the Helm,” by Seth Scott, June 18, 2002

MOST PEOPLE THINK MY JOB IS: Undoable

MY FAVORITE FOOD IS: Chicken tacos

IF I COULD CHANGE ANYTHING ABOUT MYSELF, I WOULD: Ask for a trained voice so I could sing opera

MY FAVORITE COMIC STRIP IS: The Far Side

IF A MOVIE WAS MADE OF MY LIFE, THE PERSON CHOSEN TO PLAY ME WOULD BE: Rodney Dangerfield

AND THE MOVIE’S TITLE WOULD BE: You Gotta Be Kidding

IF I COULDN’T DO WHAT I’M DOING NOW, I WOULD: Be a forest ranger in the Pecos Wilderness

Arizona’s most enduring attribute is our human ingenuity.

It allowed generations of our Native ancestors to flourish. It brought water to the desert, allowing our communities to prosper. It created a strong early commitment to education. It shaped, at statehood, the government of our choice, even in the face of presidential opposition. It enabled us

to attract and retain some of the most significant companies in the world.

Above all, it has given us unlimited opportunity for personal and collective fulfillment, asking not where you come from but where you want to go.

People don’t think of Lattie Coor as a tremendous athlete as much as an intellectual leader. Both are true as well as much more.

You only have to look at photos of him on the Kilimanjaro climb or all the years before hiking the Arizona trail, biking over much of Europe and other points in the world, his lifetime love of skiing and the complete focus he brings to every activity from high school athletics to his love of flying gliders. Lattie is competitive but it’s not against others. It’s against his own standard and Lattie trains for things. He did much of his altitude training for Kilimanjaro at our ranch in Telluride.

At this significant centennial milestone in our life, we would do well to recognize, celebrate and encourage this wonderful spirit of human ingenuity as we enter our second century. It, more than anything else, will be the key to our success in the future. — LFC

I remember so many biking trips we took with a group of friends. The group was not competitive; it was for fun and very collegial. Lattie would ride with the group until the last day. One trip I remember was to Ireland and on the last day we had to ascend the Cliffs of Moher. It was a very steep climb and I only got up part of the way and had to get off and walk. Lattie was way ahead of me and just kept going. He did this on every biking trip on the last day of the ride. He wanted to test what he thought he could do. No one else ever seemed to notice that.

Bill Post, Chairman and CEO (ret.), Pinnacle West Capital Corp. Board Member, Center for the Future of Arizona

SKYSONG TEMPE TOWN LAKE TGEN CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF ARIZONA

Reprinted from The Arizona Republic, Viewpoints, What you should know about Arizona, by Arizonans, Sunday, February 12, 2012

© 2024 Arizona Board of Regents/Arizona State University

Setting goals, in my opinion, is one of the most important things an individual can do. And I was able to achieve one of mine with my daughter Farryl

(far right) and Elva’s daughter Liz (second from left).