Gass to Retire After Thirty-Eight Years at MHC

"Wayne's legacy is substantial," says Joanne Creighton, president of the College. "Over the past four decades, his vision and expertise have contributed significantly to a reshaping of the College's physical resources to accommodate vigorous academic and cocurricular growth. The College has benefited greatly from his engineering acumen, his shrewdness as a negotiator, and his managerial talents. His dedication to the institution has been extraordinary. He will be tremendously missed."

Gass's substantial responsibilities have encompassed planning, the construction and management of physical facilities, real estate, buildings and grounds, rental housing, dining services, human resources, purchasing, public safety, mail and postal services, the telephone business office, emergency management, environmental health and safety, and the botanic garden, equestrian center, and the bookstore. Among the major building projects under Gass's direction were the construction of Ham Hall, MacGregor Hall, Reese Psychology and Education Building, Rooke Laboratory Theatre, the Kohler Building, Willits-Hallowell Center, and the Village Commons. He planned renovations and additions to Williston Memorial Library (twice), Ciruti Center for Foreign Languages, Pratt Hall, Blanchard Campus Center, the Harriet Newhall Center, and other facilities. The field house and pool, as well as the equestrian center, were also created during Gass's tenure. He has played a key role in the planning of current and future construction projects, such as those at the Blanchard Campus Center, art, music and science projects, and the renovations at the Kendall Sports and Dance Complex. These accomplishments have been among the most gratifying parts of his job, he says.

Gass's organizational accomplishments include supervising the decentralization of dining services, which significantly improved the College's food service operations. He is also credited with successfully reducing energy costs and consumption over the years and automating postal and mailing operations. Additionally, as a result of Gass's efforts, the College employs a highly professional public safety department of dedicated and well-trained staff.

Gass notes that the most dramatic development since his arrival at MHC in 1962 is the growth of technology. "We have moved from manual accounting and manual building controls to where everything is now computerized. There's a computer on every desk, in every kitchen, and a computer chip in all control devices. That's a significant change, and implementing the changes has been part of the fun of the job!" he says.

Gass says he has been fortunate through the years to have worked with so many strong and able trustees, presidents and other administrators, faculty, and staff. "David Truman and Liz Kennan gave me opportunities to expand my responsibilities and skills," he says. "And Otto Kohler and Merrill Ewing were supportive mentors during my formative years in higher education administration."

If he had to pick just one of his many memorable experiences at the College, Gass says it would be "a major fire in the central heating plant over twenty years ago." He remembers that it was a cold December morning in 1977, just at the beginning of exam week, when a major fire, caused by a break in an oil line, took the boilers down for a chilly dozen or more hours. "We nearly had to send students home, but outside contractors and the staff worked through the day and night to put out the fire and repair the boilers. A yeoman's effort prevented us from closing the College."

When asked what he will miss and not miss, Gass says he will miss his dedicated staff and the colleagues with whom he works. He will most definitely not miss dealing with power outages and fire alarms in the wee hours of the morning or the endless number of meetings.

Many of Gass's responsibilities will go to Mary Jo Maydew, treasurer of the College. "He has been a very great colleague, and we've worked well together," says Maydew. "He has given me the benefit of his expertise, and I've tried to capture as much of his knowledge as is humanly possible." The joining of the departments is "a very common one in higher education," she says of her newly merged responsibilities." The equestrian center, previously under Gass's purview, will become the responsibility of Laurie Priest, director of athletics and chair of physical education and athletics, Maydew notes, and the College has contracted with an outside firm for capital project management of the "big construction projects."

Gass says he departs with much optimism for MHC's future. "I think the institution is in a very strong position. It's stronger because of the efforts over the past few years to bring the institution into financial equilibrium," he says. "There is a great spirit of working together, and the College has strong leadership under Joanne Creighton."