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Bob Fee, Iconic A&S 'Go-To' Person, Retires

If he had waited until next September to retire, Bob Fee says, he could have claimed 50 years as student, instructor, advisor and assistant dean. "So there must have been some strong influences on me to have come to UC and to have stayed," says the senior assistant dean, who steps down in January.

"Alumni of, as they say, a 'certain age' will recognize the names of those influences: George Barbour, William R. Nester, Gene Lewis, Joseph E. Holliday and Charles Kipp Weichert. Each in his own way showed me the joy of learning and the personal satisfaction of working with students."

Those who have worked with Fee throughout the years - and asked him countless questions - describe him as the quintessential "go-to" person. Howard Tolley, professor of political science, captures that sentiment in just a few words: "Bob Fee has been such a mainstay of our college that his departure will be an immeasurable loss of institutional memory." Fee's good humor, too, will be missed. Cynthia Berryman-Fink, the Department of Communication's acting head, enjoyed his company while she served as interim A&S dean.

"In my short time in the dean's office this past year, I had the pleasure of seeing Bob almost daily as he stopped by for coffee and chatted about university issues or current events," she says. "Despite some major health issues this year, he was always upbeat, humorous, patient and friendly. Those few minutes of interaction brightened each of my days." Professor Carl Huether, Biological Sciences, is happy to know that he and Fee, who met in 1966, will retire at the same time. Fee is, Huether says, "one who amazingly seemed to be as excited and interested in his work 40 years later as he was the year I met him."

"The words that come to my mind when I think of Bob are an individual who has been dedicated first and foremost to outstanding service for our students for the past 50 years; one who has been fully respectful of rules, but also knew that on occasion everyone was better served when they were at least slightly bent," Huether adds.

Fee, who earned his bachelor's degree in political science in 1963, is proud of that students-come-first reputation. "I've been asked about the accomplishment in which I take greatest pride," Fee says. "In organizational terms, it is probably being a founder of the Midwest Association of Pre-Law Advisors. But on what to me is a more significant level, it is what, I hope, is a reputation as a problem solver in the administrative systems that are supposed to help students - but which do not always do so. I have been told more than once to please stay out of the business of some other student affairs offices at UC. I consider those requests among the highest compliments I have been paid."