Get to Know Duane and Ruthie Nellis
With those words, Mike Rush, executive director of the Idaho State Board of Education captured the mood in the standing-room-only Administration Auditorium on April 22. Moments later, the continuum of leadership advanced with State Board of Education President Paul Agidius’ introduction of M. Duane Nellis as the 17th president of the University of Idaho to a standing ovation. “What a wonderful Vandal family welcome to Ruthie and me,” said Nellis. “We are just so pleased to be here at the University of Idaho. It is a great honor to accept the presidency of this wonderful land-grant institution.”
traditional curriculum of liberal arts and sciences. When the University of Idaho was established in 1889 as the state’s first university, it was designated the state’s landgrant institution. That led to the creation of a statewide Agricultural Extension Service and growing support for agricultural research to help Idaho farmers and ranchers and their families. The Extension Forestry program followed, with a mission to provide similar assistance to forest owners, loggers and professional foresters in the state. Today, outreach programs are offered statewide in a multidisciplinary approach in order to enhance the economic development and improve the quality of life of the citizens of Idaho. “A land-grant, to me, really is the people’s university,” said Nellis. “We are part of the fabric of this state.”
A Passion for Land-Grants
Kind of a Workaholic
As Duane Nellis assumes the presidency of the University of Idaho – his official start date was July 1 – he’s devoting important time to getting to know the people throughout the state and letting them get to know him. A statewide “Listening Tour” began in early July.
Nellis comes to Idaho from Kansas State University, where he served as provost and senior vice president since June 2004. Prior to that appointment, he was dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University for seven years.
But while the newness of his presidency is at the forefront, Nellis’ understanding of what the University of Idaho is all about is grounded in experience – land-grant experience.
His first academic appointment was at Kansas State in the Department of Geography, and his research in the utilization of satellite data and geographic information systems to analyze various dimensions of the earth’s land surface was supported by more than $3 million in funding from sources such as NASA, the National Geographic Society, the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
He earned all his degrees at land-grant institutions – a bachelor’s in earth sciences/geography at Montana State University and master’s and doctoral degrees in geography at Oregon State University. His 29-year teaching and administrative career in higher education also has been exclusively at land-grant universities, Kansas State University and West Virginia University. “We enjoy visiting larger cities and experiencing the city, but we really like the smaller, university-oriented community like a Moscow, like a Manhattan, Kan., and like a Corvallis, Ore.,” said Nellis. “All these communities revolve around land-grant universities, and there’s a special place in my heart for the role that land-grants play in the United States.” Just what is that role? Land-grant colleges were created by Congress in 1862 to promote agriculture and mechanical arts into the then-
But his skills as an administrator were identified early in his career. “I became a department head at 32,” said Nellis. “That began to define my dual career as a faculty person and as an administrator. Then, I became an associate dean, and was appointed a dean when I was 42 years old.” During his introductory remarks to the University, Nellis provided a hint at the reason behind his success when he commented that he was “kind of a workaholic.” Later, his wife, Ruthie, commented, “I think you can drop the ‘kind of.’” Nellis added some clarification to his comment.
summer 2009
“[There are,] in the life of every great institution, a few signature moments and, certainly, the selection of a new president counts as one of those.”
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