Menu
Old Gold Medal bestowed upon Bottoms during dedication
“This building could simply not be named for anyone else,” Timothy H. Ubben said as he introduced Bob Bottoms, the 18th president of DePauw University, at a dedication ceremony Friday afternoon for the Robert G. Bottoms Alumni and Development Center.
Ubben, a 1958 graduate of DePauw and the former chairman of the DePauw Board of Trustees, spoke as the Bottoms Alumni and Development Center was formally opened in Bottoms’ honor for his “very significant contribution to this school over many, many years.”
Bottoms, who worked at DePauw for 32 years -- first as its chief fundraiser and for 22 years as its president -- was on hand for the event, which attracted an overflow crowd of alumni, faculty and staff, and described “how fortunate I think I was to work at DePauw.”
At the end of the program, Bottoms received a surprise from the current president, D. Mark McCoy -- DePauw’s Old Gold Medal, which is awarded by the Board of Trustees to individuals who have served DePauw in a devoted, exemplary and meritorious way.
A major capital gift from Ubben and his wife and classmate, Sharon Williams Ubben, two of the greatest benefactors in DePauw’s 181-year-history, made possible the new home for the college’s development and alumni engagement division. The Ubbens requested the building be named for Bottoms, who said the phone call from the couple sharing that news left him “speechless.”
“It’s a great day for DePauw,” Tim Ubben said.
Located at 201 E. Seminary St. and once Sigma Nu fraternity and then formerly home to Delta Zeta sorority, the building had been vacant for about a decade. It replaces a former Sunday school building that had served as the center for DePauw’s fundraising and alumni relations personnel for more than three decades.
“I was wondering the other day,” Ubben joked, “which was in worse shape -- the Charter House or the Acropolis?”
Bottoms received praise from several speakers.
“Together, your legacy, Dr. Bottoms, and your generosity, Mr. and Mrs. Ubben, have transformed this building, just as you transformed DePauw, and we’re forever grateful,” noted Steven J. Setchell, vice president for development and alumni engagement, who served as master of ceremonies.
“If you are a graduate of DePauw, this is your home,” McCoy, the university’s 20th president, told the standing-room-only gathering. “This place is here to gather together, share memories, re-establish connections and make plans for the future.”
“Here the future of our university is being made,“ McCoy added. “Here a dedicated and skilled staff is working to help you partner in our work to ensure the success of each student at DePauw. What we do here will determine the future of the rest of campus and it will touch the lives of the students who have yet to enter it.”
Children and grandchildren of Bottoms were on hand for the event, as was his wife, Gwen, “our wonderful first lady of 22 years,” as Tim Ubben called her.
In his remarks, Bottoms also praised his wife, saying, “She did her best to keep me humble ... Gwen made everybody feel welcome at DePauw.”
A native of Birmingham, Ala., Bottoms earned his bachelor’s degree at Birmingham-Southern College, a Bachelor of Divinity degree at Emory University, and his doctorate at Vanderbilt University.
He was chaplain and assistant to the president at Birmingham-Southern College and then served as assistant dean and assistant professor of church and ministry at Vanderbilt University before coming to DePauw in 1978 as vice president for university relations. He subsequently advanced to executive vice president of the university before being named president in 1986, succeeding Richard F. Rosser. Bottoms retired in 2008.
During Bottoms’ tenure at the helm of DePauw, the university more than quadrupled its percentages of minority students and faculty and became a partner with the Posse Foundation; its faculty grew from 154 to 241 and student-faculty ratio decreased by one-third; about $190 million was invested in buildings and grounds; and the university’s endowment, which was $83.2 million when Bottoms became president, grew to $544 million, fueled by two record-setting campaigns and a $128 million scholarship endowment gift -- at the time (1998) the largest gift ever received by a liberal arts college in America -- from Philip Forbes Holton and Ruth Clark Holton of the Class of 1929.
“If it was warm and we had time I could take you through every building I built while I was president and tell you there was a distinctive story about every one of them,” Bottoms told the crowd. “Now, how could we raise all this money? I say with a great deal of humility and truthfulness that it was not because of the president; it was because of the alumni and the trustees who love this place. And even though Tim called me ‘Bob the Builder’ our success was not in fundraising was not just about buildings. We endowed a lot of faculty chairs and we were able to enlarge the size of the faculty. We raised a lot of money for scholarships because we hoped that anybody who wanted to come here and was accepted here could.”
Bottoms added, “People did not give because the president was so skilled or the development officers were so sharp; they gave because they wanted to enhance the lives of students, as their lives had been enhanced here.”
Successful fundraising “starts in the classroom,” Bottoms asserted. “It starts with faculty who care about students and students who have their horizons broadened. And that is the beginning.”
The former president noted, “All of these folks who work in this building will keep alumni connected to DePauw,” and he offered, “DePauw will face many challenges in the future, just like all of the liberal arts colleges in the country. This is a difficult time, just as it was when I came in. And DePauw, like other institutions, will have to rely on the generosity of alumni and friends. And it won’t be successful without them.”
A standing ovation followed the former president’s remarks. As he presented the Old Gold Medal, President McCoy praised Bottoms for making a DePauw education “more meaningful and more accessible ... Your leadership of DePauw transformed our institution and bettered us in ways that we are still only beginning to fully understand and appreciate.”
Bottoms has had national influence on issues of education and leadership through his service on the boards of the Posse Foundation, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Chicago, the Joyce Foundation in Chicago, and the Center for Leadership Development in Indianapolis. In addition, Bottoms has been a consultant to the Lilly Endowment, the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the Fund for Theological Education.