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| This photo of Norman P. Auburn was taken at the time of his retirement from the University in 1971. |
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When Norman P. Auburn arrived at The University of Akron in 1951 to serve as its 10th president, he found a small school with a mission that matched his own — to make higher education available and affordable to everyone.
For Auburn, the credo was personal. His own father had been a laborer — an architectural draftsman.
“My dad always knew that his dad, in the right circumstances, with the right education, would have been the architect, and not the draftsman,” recalls his son, Mark Auburn, who is dean of UA’s College of Fine and Applied Arts.
For the senior Auburn, who died July 21 at age 98, that desire to provide opportunities for people to realize their full potential has resulted in an impressive legacy.
During his 20-year tenure — the longest of any University of Akron president, Auburn directed the institution’s transformation from a municipal university with 3,500 students to a comprehensive, state-supported university with an enrollment of more than 18,000.
There were many more accomplishments as well. They include:
* Increasing UA’s academic offerings dramatically through the establishment of the School of Law, the College of Business Administration, the College of Fine and Applied Arts, the College of Nursing, and the Community and Technical College.
* Creating the Institute for Rubber Research, which has evolved into the nationally ranked College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering.
* Granting of the University’s first doctoral degree.
* Overseeing the physical transformation of the Akron campus, including the construction of Memorial Hall, Kolbe Hall and the University’s first modern residence halls since the early 1900s, as well as the nation’s first university-sponsored urban renewal project, which created Lee R. Jackson Field.
* Leading the initiative to create the University’s branch campus, Wayne College, in Orrville.
* And, conducting the University’s first major fund-raising campaign, the Challenge ’70 Capital Campaign, which helped to finance the building of E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall.
Because of the significant changes he engineered, Auburn is regarded as one of UA’s three founders. In a fitting tribute, the University’s Science and Engineering Center is named in his honor.
“The University of Akron has lost one of its greatest presidents and its most significant founder in the 20th century,“ notes President Luis M. Proenza. “Dr. Auburn remained steadfastly involved in the University’s activities and committed to its immense promise. He was a great friend to all and a strong supporter of the new goals and horizons that were set during the past few years. He will be missed.”
Marion A. Ruebel, who was president from 1996 to 1998, first joined UA as a faculty member in 1970, near the end of Auburn’s term.
“Dr. Auburn’s philosophy epitomized to me what The University of Akron is all about,” recalls Ruebel. “He had a tremendous feel for what the Akron area needed from the University. I think the Evening College is one of his greatest accomplishments — not all institutions had them. I know of many people who were able to earn their degrees because they could have a full-time job and go to school in the evening.”
Not all universities had a general college, either, notes Ruebel, who was serving as dean of UA’s unit when it was renamed University College.
“One of the big benefits was that each student who came in was assigned to an academic adviser by name,” said Ruebel. “And that academic adviser would track that freshman student all the way through his or her first year, while they took the general studies program. It makes sense — students who are successful in their first year are going to remain in school. This, once again, was part of Dr. Auburn’s philosophy of education.”
Dominic Guzzetta, who served as University president from 1971 to 1984, says that Auburn “was the right person at the right time” to lead the University, and he made the most of it.
“He took a small institution and made it into a major player in higher education,” said Guzzetta. “Each of his successors has been able to build upon a quality operation for which he was responsible. The name Auburn will long be remembered on campus as one of the stalwarts of the institution.”
Auburn had come to Akron from his native Cincinnati. He had earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Cincinnati, where he later worked for 18 years in a variety of capacities. Auburn had risen to the position of vice president and dean of university administration at Cincinnati before leaving to join The University of Akron.
Throughout the years of his UA presidency, Auburn held many professional positions.
He was adviser to the President’s Committee for the White House Conference on Education, special assistant for university relations for the U.S. State Department’s Agency for International Development, director and acting president of the Council for Financial Aid to Education Inc., and president of the Ohio College Association, the Association of Urban Universities and the Association of University Evening Colleges, among others.
After his retirement in 1971 as president emeritus, Auburn shared his expertise by serving as an acting senior executive at several colleges and universities throughout the United States. He also remained active in community and philanthropic organizations nationwide. In addition to being director and president of the Herman Muehlstein Foundation in New York, Auburn served as a board member for the Charles and Mabel Ritchie Memorial Foundation, the Ohio Research and Development Foundation, the Lake Erie Watershed Conservation Foundation and the Manor Foundation, as well as Charter One Financial, Inc. Auburn received the Akron Community Foundation’s Bert A. Polsky Humanitarian Award in 1997.
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| This photo of Norman Auburn, with longtime assistant Caroline Pardee, was taken at a University function in the late 1990s. |
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No matter where his travels took him, Akron remained home to Auburn. He was a regular at University functions, athletic events and performances at E.J. Thomas Hall. Dozens of grateful students have benefited from the scholarship funds he established as well.
Why the strong ties?
“In some sense, I guess, The University of Akron was the site of his full maturity,” says Mark Auburn. “This was the place that embraced him and gave him the opportunity to thrive on his own.
“The University gave back a lot to him,” noted the younger Auburn. “He loved watching the changes here. It was like watching the homestead develop — very much like creating a community. Akron created a community for him, and continued to welcome him into the community he helped to build.”
Norman Auburn is survived by second wife, Virginia, four children, two stepdaughters, six grandchildren, one stepgrandaughter and seven great-grandchildren. His first wife, Kathleen, died in 1974.
A University memorial service is being planned. Memorials may be made in Norman Auburn’s name to The University of Akron Foundation.
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