Giving Away The Office
Story by Justin Franz - Published in the Montana Kaimin, September 24, 2010
ON a cloudy Tuesday morning as his retirement nears, George Dennison sits in an old leather chair and stares around his office at all the relics collected during 20 years at the helm of The University of Montana.
There's the sleek war club from New Zealand, a gift during the university's centennial. The slim baby-blue vases from China, given by a far-off institution. And then there's the bottle labeled "King George's Brew," made by a group of protesting students as a gesture of truce, although that item remains hidden away.
Surrounded by these reminders of the past, he awaits his future.
Soon Provost Royce Engstrom will become the 17th president of UM and move into Main Hall's corner office - Dennison's office - the most powerful space on campus. With wood paneling wrapping around tall walls and windows looking out across the Oval, the room is steeped with history.
DENNISON, 74, announced his plans to retire after 20 years during his State of the University address on Jan. 25. The end of the longest serving administration in UM history came as a surprise to many, but for Dennison the time was never better.
"I wouldn't have pulled the plug if I didn't think it was the right time," he said.
The final months of Dennison's tenure have been unusual ones as his planned retirement date of Aug. 15 came and went. Yet years of experience had prepared him for this.
"If you've been around the academy very long you know pretty well that things don't always go as you thought they would," he said. "But you'll get there."
Even as his career moves toward its end, Dennison has been clear that his departure from the president's office is not a sad occasion. He has continued to work, preparing annual goals and delivering the State of the University address. He has continued to occupy the office that he has called home for 20 years.
But now he knows it's time to go. With big plans for the next phase of his life, he has been looking forward to his scheduled retirement day.
"I've been looking forward to it since the day it passed," he said, with a dry laugh and slight smile that has seemed to emerge more often in recent months.
Those big plans include returning to his roots of studying history, for which he earned a degree in the mid-1960s from UM. From there he began teaching at Colorado State and in mid-1970s made the jump to administration, a move that wasn't meant to be permanent. By the mid-1980s he was at Western Michigan as a vice president and in the summer of 1990, he was a finalist for UM's top job.
With his three-decade long administrative detour coming to an end, Dennison is looking forward to getting back to his passion and hopes to teach a history course at UM. His main goal, though, is to write a complete history of the university, something he believes could take up to three years and result in a lot of time deep in the archives of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library.
This, along with improving his golf game, will be enough to keep busy, he said.
"There's plenty to do. From what I hear from people who have made the change is that they are busier then they were before," he said. "Whatever I do, I'm going to do it as actively as I can."
But even with his thoughts on the future, he allows himself moments of reflection.
"I don't go out of this feeling as if I'm escaping from a cage or from a heavy burden. I go out of it thinking I did pretty well for what I did and that it's time for me to do something else," he said. "I don't think I have to leave."
BUT soon he will have to leave the corner office when Engstrom moves in Oct. 15. Before then Dennison will have to pack up some of the books and mementos that line the walls.
Walking over to the wall, Dennison gazes across the shelves and picks up one of his favorites - The war club from New Zealand. As he runs his hand down the smooth, stone finish he jokes about how he likes to swing it around to get his way.
Placing it back on the shelf, he again glances across the long, wooden wall and all the items it holds.
"There's people with every one of them," he said.
Some things will stay when Dennison moves out, just like some people in the office.
Cathleen Collins is the University's assistant to the president, and her small office sits just behind an unnoticeable door on the back wall of Dennison's office. Inside, Collins sits at a cramped desk surrounded by notebooks and binders, all part of her job of scheduling and assisting the president. Every meeting, every event, every interview request - all of it goes through her.
And while Dennison will be leaving, Collins will stay.
She moved from Seattle to take the job five years ago, and she has been working well into the evening in recent weeks as she tries to facilitate a smooth transition of power. With so much work to do she's had little time to think about what the end of Dennison's tenure might be like.
"On people's last day you collect their swipe card and office keys. Is that the same for a president?" She said, laughing.
But even with the laughter, she recognizes the finality of the coming weeks.
"I have a lot of respect for him and what he does. He's the president ... I don't know, it's hard to imagine anyone else in that office," she said.
But soon enough, she knows Engstrom will be walking in.
Dennison feels confident that he's handing his office keys over to the right person. He'd always planned to retire after 20 years and Engstrom's arrival three years ago put the provost in a prime position to take the helm. Dennison said that Provost Engstrom showed intense leadership capability since the beginning.
But as his final day approaches, one thing that he is adamantly against is forcing advice on the new administration.
"I won't offer anything. If he wants to ask that'd be fine, but I think it's got to be his show, not mine."
NOW Dennison is out of time to reminisce. On this Tuesday, he has to make a meeting in Butte by 2 p.m., and as the ancient clock tower above chimes 12 times, he stands up and grabs his jacket. He checks his e-mail one more time before slipping a book into his bag and sliding it off the table as he heads for the door.
Shortly after noon, Dennison leaves the most powerful office on campus and shuts the door behind him.
ON a cloudy Tuesday morning as his retirement nears, George Dennison sits in an old leather chair and stares around his office at all the relics collected during 20 years at the helm of The University of Montana.
There's the sleek war club from New Zealand, a gift during the university's centennial. The slim baby-blue vases from China, given by a far-off institution. And then there's the bottle labeled "King George's Brew," made by a group of protesting students as a gesture of truce, although that item remains hidden away.
Surrounded by these reminders of the past, he awaits his future.
Soon Provost Royce Engstrom will become the 17th president of UM and move into Main Hall's corner office - Dennison's office - the most powerful space on campus. With wood paneling wrapping around tall walls and windows looking out across the Oval, the room is steeped with history.
DENNISON, 74, announced his plans to retire after 20 years during his State of the University address on Jan. 25. The end of the longest serving administration in UM history came as a surprise to many, but for Dennison the time was never better.
"I wouldn't have pulled the plug if I didn't think it was the right time," he said.
The final months of Dennison's tenure have been unusual ones as his planned retirement date of Aug. 15 came and went. Yet years of experience had prepared him for this.
"If you've been around the academy very long you know pretty well that things don't always go as you thought they would," he said. "But you'll get there."
Even as his career moves toward its end, Dennison has been clear that his departure from the president's office is not a sad occasion. He has continued to work, preparing annual goals and delivering the State of the University address. He has continued to occupy the office that he has called home for 20 years.
But now he knows it's time to go. With big plans for the next phase of his life, he has been looking forward to his scheduled retirement day.
"I've been looking forward to it since the day it passed," he said, with a dry laugh and slight smile that has seemed to emerge more often in recent months.
Those big plans include returning to his roots of studying history, for which he earned a degree in the mid-1960s from UM. From there he began teaching at Colorado State and in mid-1970s made the jump to administration, a move that wasn't meant to be permanent. By the mid-1980s he was at Western Michigan as a vice president and in the summer of 1990, he was a finalist for UM's top job.
With his three-decade long administrative detour coming to an end, Dennison is looking forward to getting back to his passion and hopes to teach a history course at UM. His main goal, though, is to write a complete history of the university, something he believes could take up to three years and result in a lot of time deep in the archives of the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library.
This, along with improving his golf game, will be enough to keep busy, he said.
"There's plenty to do. From what I hear from people who have made the change is that they are busier then they were before," he said. "Whatever I do, I'm going to do it as actively as I can."
But even with his thoughts on the future, he allows himself moments of reflection.
"I don't go out of this feeling as if I'm escaping from a cage or from a heavy burden. I go out of it thinking I did pretty well for what I did and that it's time for me to do something else," he said. "I don't think I have to leave."
BUT soon he will have to leave the corner office when Engstrom moves in Oct. 15. Before then Dennison will have to pack up some of the books and mementos that line the walls.
Walking over to the wall, Dennison gazes across the shelves and picks up one of his favorites - The war club from New Zealand. As he runs his hand down the smooth, stone finish he jokes about how he likes to swing it around to get his way.
Placing it back on the shelf, he again glances across the long, wooden wall and all the items it holds.
"There's people with every one of them," he said.
Some things will stay when Dennison moves out, just like some people in the office.
Cathleen Collins is the University's assistant to the president, and her small office sits just behind an unnoticeable door on the back wall of Dennison's office. Inside, Collins sits at a cramped desk surrounded by notebooks and binders, all part of her job of scheduling and assisting the president. Every meeting, every event, every interview request - all of it goes through her.
And while Dennison will be leaving, Collins will stay.
She moved from Seattle to take the job five years ago, and she has been working well into the evening in recent weeks as she tries to facilitate a smooth transition of power. With so much work to do she's had little time to think about what the end of Dennison's tenure might be like.
"On people's last day you collect their swipe card and office keys. Is that the same for a president?" She said, laughing.
But even with the laughter, she recognizes the finality of the coming weeks.
"I have a lot of respect for him and what he does. He's the president ... I don't know, it's hard to imagine anyone else in that office," she said.
But soon enough, she knows Engstrom will be walking in.
Dennison feels confident that he's handing his office keys over to the right person. He'd always planned to retire after 20 years and Engstrom's arrival three years ago put the provost in a prime position to take the helm. Dennison said that Provost Engstrom showed intense leadership capability since the beginning.
But as his final day approaches, one thing that he is adamantly against is forcing advice on the new administration.
"I won't offer anything. If he wants to ask that'd be fine, but I think it's got to be his show, not mine."
NOW Dennison is out of time to reminisce. On this Tuesday, he has to make a meeting in Butte by 2 p.m., and as the ancient clock tower above chimes 12 times, he stands up and grabs his jacket. He checks his e-mail one more time before slipping a book into his bag and sliding it off the table as he heads for the door.
Shortly after noon, Dennison leaves the most powerful office on campus and shuts the door behind him.