Illinois Wesleyan University


MINOR MYERS JR., 60
President of Illinois Wesleyan U.

By Carolina Bolado
Tribune staff reporter

Copyrighted July 27, 2003. Chicago Tribune Company. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

When students came to Minor Myers Jr., for advice, he'd tell them just one thing--to find their passions.
"My husband would ask them, `What makes your heart sing? Forget the practical--that will come. Find something that will make your heart sing, and the rest will fall into place,'" said his wife, Ellen.

Mr. Myers, 60, president of Illinois Wesleyan University in Downstate Bloomington and an indefatigable advocate of liberal arts education, died Tuesday, July 22, of lung cancer at his Bloomington home.

In his 14 years as president, Mr. Myers guided the university as it grew from a regional institution to a national liberal arts college. During Mr. Myers' tenure, the university increased its enrollment and selectivity, expanded its study-abroad options, added 10 academic programs and raised $137 million in a capital campaign. Mr. Myers also led a $115 million construction project, which included a new library, a science and research building and a student center.

"The most important thing he did really was look at a place that was clearly a very solid, strong regional institution and he taught it to dream," said Janet McNew, acting university president. "He had a way of inspiring the rest of us into thinking that this was a magical place."

Born in Copley, Ohio, Mr. Myers was a bookworm from the start, when he would collect fireflies in a jar and use their light to read after dark. After graduating from Carleton College in Minnesota in 1964, he earned master's and doctorate degrees in political philosophy from Princeton University.

Mr. Myers began his teaching career in 1968 as a government instructor at Connecticut College, where he later became the department chair of government. It was there that he met his wife, who was finishing her senior year at the college. The two, who shared a passion for collecting 18th Century antiques, married in 1970.

He began his administrative career in 1984 at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y., where he was provost and dean of faculty. In 1989, he was named president of Illinois Wesleyan. Despite the pressures of running a university, Mr. Myers still managed to find time to publish essays and books and even write a musical.

"He never stopped learning about new things. Sooner or later he just collected enough information to put it into a book," said his son, Minor Myers III.

According to his wife, Mr. Myers took special interest in whatever activities his sons were pursuing.

"When we lived in upstate New York, my brother and I got into Little League and baseball cards, and we'd drag him to games. He'd always find something interesting," his son said. Mr. Myers found it so interesting that he published an article on the history of baseball in the area.

He shared this same intellectual curiosity with faculty members at Illinois Wesleyan.

"He would come into your office unexpectedly and talk about something that he thought you might be interested in," said Tom Griffiths, acting dean of faculty at the university. "And he'd suddenly just as quickly pop out again and you'd feel energized for the rest of the day."

Other survivors include another son, Joffre; two brothers, Thomas and Philip; and a sister, Carla Korshin. A memorial service will be held at Shirk Center on the Illinois Wesleyan campus at 1 p.m. August 25.

IWU News

IWU Magazine
IWU News Tips
The Photos Page
Weekly Calendar
Events Calendar
IWU Experts
Alumni in the Movies
Sounds & Sights
Communications Staff
Contact Us
Sports Page

Story Archives

Current Year
2001-2002
2000-2001
1999-2000
1998-1999
1997-1998

Windows of Wesleyan

All content and images copyright © 2002 Illinois Wesleyan University