Former Chancellor Jim Meyer Assists Home Department

Not unlike the Energizer battery, former Chancellor Jim Meyer shows no signs of slowing down. One of his former professors says that he is demonstrating symptoms of RDS--Retirement Denial Syndrome.

It's true that he formally stepped down from being Chancellor in 1987, after 18 years in that position and a total of 36 years on campus as teacher and administrator. He still pedals his old Raleigh to work every day, however, arriving well before most of his colleagues.

Although he is back in his home department of Animal Science where he began his career as an instructor in 1952, he resides in a new building, Meyer Hall, named in his honor.

Because of his sense of history and knowledge of the campus, Meyer has been in demand to serve on various campus committees. In recent years he has been a member of:

• The UCD Water Task Force
• The Historical and Video Recording Committee
• The Performing Arts Committee

He recently served on the Executive Committee of STUDENTS FIRST, the campuswide fund-raising campaign to raise money for student scholarships and activities.

His unspoken mission, however, was to prove that departments can do a better job than the campus in raising funds for their own students. His rationale was that most alumni are more likely to make donations to their home department.

Meyer with help from his editor, Eileen O'Farrell, ran the campaign for Animal Science, learning the "development" business while doing it.

He and Don McNary, former campus Development Officer, traveled the length of California visiting alumni and friends. Meyer even visited acquaintances in his native Idaho to raise funds for STUDENTS FIRST.

As head of the Department Development Committee, Meyer has encouraged the department to take a proactive stance in planning for its future needs, anticipating what professors, Extension specialists and students will need 20 or 30 years down the road.

Meyer is constantly visited by friends and acquaintances from around the world who wish to consult with him on such topics as administrative organization and structure or the future of agriculture and Land Grant institutions.

He has written extensively on these topics in recent years, including an article that appeared in Science and two reports on the future of Land Grant Colleges of Agriculture, sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Meyer's style of open communication has earned the respect of administrators, faculty and students. The cartoons tacked outside his office door remind visitors that he enjoys a good laugh.

He often jokes that his farm background and his observations of animal behavior prepared him for his role as an administrator. Perhaps hard work, raising five children and an occasional game of golf have given him the courage to face life with such a confident smile.