Photo by: Tone Stockenstrom
Dr. Gregory Sawyer Fails at Retirement “It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” –William Ernest Henley, “Invictus.”
Growing up, both of Dr. Sawyer’s parents taught the importance of education. His father earned his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College and spent three years postgrad at Howard University Medical School before being pulled out to be an Army medic. Dr. Sawyer’s mother attended Bennett College
By: Rachel Forrester
in Greensboro, North Carolina, but transferred and
Those words have become the mantra for ENMU
graduated from The Ohio State University. Sitting
alumnus Dr. Wm. Gregory Sawyer (MA 78), who
around the dining room table at the Sawyer house was
recently retired from California State University
more like a college study session.
Channel Islands (CSUCI) after 16 years as their
“This type of family engagement helped me and my
founding vice president for Student Affairs.
sisters to remain motivated throughout our academic
In his nearly four decades of working with students
journeys. Knowing that our parents sacrificed and cared
as an educator and administrator, Sawyer adopted the
for us made us want to achieve even more for them, and
poem “Invictus,” which emphasizes embracing courage
ourselves,” Dr. Sawyer said.
and resilience in the face of adversity, as his way to
Sawyer applied to a variety of different graduate
encourage, motivate and inspire students when they
programs. He was accepted to all of them but is grateful
felt they were at their lowest point.
that he ultimately choose to become a Greyhound. His
“The poem was a way to say that although life had dealt
two sisters, Leslie J. Sawyer (MA 82) and Deborah M.
them some serious blows, they could and would recover. They may be beat but never beaten!” he explained. Under his leadership, CSUCI’s Divison of Student Affairs has been recognized for the past four consecutive years as one of the nation’s Most Promising Places to Work for in Student Affairs. In addition to his administrative work, Dr. Sawyer taught public speaking courses and regularly ran speech tournaments and leadership retreats, often using his own upbringing and
Sawyer (MS 82), were also graduate students at ENMU. The three siblings all attended private institutions for their undergraduate degrees, and each one drove all the way from Ohio to New Mexico to earn their master’s. “I had a pretty solid educational background before coming to Eastern, but I think my best academic experience was at ENMU,” Sawyer said. “All the things that I learned in terms of the ability to interact interculturally, to teach, as well as to get up in front of
experiences to connect with students.
an audience and speak, I learned there.”
“They would say ‘Doc, you’ve probably always had good
Dr. Sawyer knew he would probably “fail” at retirement,
grades.’ But I didn’t,” he revealed. “At one point as an
8
Pictured: Dr. Wm. Gregory Sawyer with his mom Betty and his two sisters Leslie and Deborah.
and after only six weeks he was invited to join Sonoma
undergrad I had a 1.0 GPA and that was really difficult for
State University as the vice president for Student Affairs.
me because I’d done so well academically in my military
“There were bets on how long I would stay retired,”
academy high school. My sisters and I always made
Dr. Sawyer explained. “My wife (Dr. Rita Gloria Sawyer)
good grades. After that I still ended up becoming the
and I are looking forward to working with this
outstanding grad student in communication, so I wanted
visionary and very forward-thinking president
students to see that no matter where they were in life,
(Dr. Sakaki) as we work together to make a difference
they too could pull themselves up by their bootstraps.”
in the world through the lens of higher education.”
Green & Silver | April 2018
