Fulfilling. Unpredictable. Happy.
These are the three words Dean Robert Bookwalter said best describe his career in higher education – which was set to end this summer, until the second of these three words made itself known in his story once again.
Although he planned to join his wife as a member of the newly retired community July 1, Bookwalter added a six-month extension to his 38 years of service at Marshall University after Provost Avi Mukherjee asked him to temporarily fill the position he’d soon be vacating.
“Six months is not a very long time to work in a provost’s office,” he said, “but we don’t just want to rest on our heels or mark time. I want to make sure that the leaders of all of our units are getting the resources that they need in order to advance all the important initiatives that are underway and the ones that we’re just about to start.”
While Bookwalter said there is still much to learn in the transition from dean to interim provost, he also said some challenges, such as the new budget model, will be new to everyone and require campus-wide collaboration.
Interim provost is not the first new role Bookwalter has had to grasp, though. When he arrived at Marshall in 1987, he served as a faculty member in the Department of Communication Studies before becoming the coordinator of CMM 103 for 15 years.
In 2010, he was appointed interim dean of the College of Education – a role he held three years before his 11-year tenure as dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
Although he said he loved parts of each of his jobs, he most enjoyed his time as a basic course director and coordinator of CMM 103 because he bestowed students with the knowledge of how they “could be more confident and express themselves more articulately.”
“I was doing what I think I was meant to do, what I love to do, and I was always able to do that,” Bookwalter said, touching on the fulfillment from his career.
“I cannot think of anything I would have rather done, and Marshall has allowed me to do that from the time I came here,” he added.
In his 38 years at the university, Bookwalter said he also enjoyed a brief stint as a dancer; while serving as the interim dean of the College of Education, he made one of his favorite Marshall memories by participating in a flash mob dance with incoming students during that year’s Week of Welcome.
Overall, Bookwalter said his goal as an educator and administrator has always been to give students the same experience college gave him: the opportunity to become a better person.
“If I’ve made any contribution, it doesn’t really have anything to do with money or numbers,” he said. “In my opinion, it has to do with whether the students who came here and worked with me or worked under programs that I had some influence over – whether they became the people they wanted to be, or whether they think they have a good life and are a good person.”
Once he retires in January, Bookwalter plans to spend more time with his seven grandchildren, complete projects around the house and travel with his wife.
Even so, he said this new era will not mark the end of his educational journey.
“Just because you graduate or get a job or a promotion – or even retire, that doesn’t mean you’re done learning and growing or that you know everything,” he said. “We can always be better next week than we were this week. A little bit smarter or a little bit better informed or, honestly, a little bit better of a person.”
Baylee Parsons can be contacted at [email protected].
