Devoted Academics by Robert V. Smith, PhD
Dr. Robert V. Smith
Registry Senior Consultant
Author of Devoted Academics
Dr. Bob Smith currently serves as a Registry Senior Consultant and previously served for 45 years in faculty and senior administrative positions in six U.S. research universities.
Devoted Academics is guided by the author’s 45-year career in tenured faculty posts (chemical sciences), and significant management and administrative positions at six U.S. research universities. The book is both a personal journey, and a discussion of the challenges, successes, and failures inherent in academic life. In all cases, the author stresses how important an ethical sense of responsibility, accountability, and the development of character are to successful service in academic roles. Devoted Academics is an inspiration to young scholars, contemplating a life in the academy; mid-career academics who can learn from communication and other strategies as they consider future career options; and older academics, who will enjoy comparing their experiences with those of the author and his colleagues.
BOOK REVIEWS
Richard Sax
Registry Member
Devoted Academics Review
Dr. Robert Smith’s academic memoir, Devoted Academics, provides a charming narrative of his academic journey. Technically, it can be considered a graphic novel, since Dusty Higgins has created some very visual and at times funny sketches about the people and issues being discussed. I have appreciated Dr. Smith’s sensitivity and attention to detail in the Registry Interim appointments which he has curated for me, and the same attention to detail informs this text. There is also much wisdom here for all audiences, such as when he notes a 1999 honorary doctorate given to historian David McCullough who “cautioned that learning is not wisdom, the latter only coming from turning what you learn into kindness and ethical service to others” (p. 263).
I especially enjoyed Dr. Smith’s sojourn in Ann Arbor, since my own narrative includes both MA and PhD degrees in English from Michigan, and Graduate Dean John D’Arms (referenced on p. 200) was a mentor to myself as well and awarded me with an Outstanding Teaching award in 1986 for my four years teaching there in the Department of English Language & Literature, 1982-6.
There is much wisdom in this memoir that should be of great use to current and future academic administrators: Where You Stand is Where You Sit (p. 310); New academic leaders need to hit the ground running and listening, and when parachuting into a new academic position, leaders need the support of associates (p. 312). As well, given his long friendship with coach and athletic director Frank Broyles, Smith nicely uses sports jargon to coin the term, “academic triple threat” (p. 304), for colleagues who are truly exemplary in all three areas commonly organized for annual reviews, promotion & tenure: teaching, scholarship, service. We all seek such “academic triple threats”!
___________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Anny Morrobel-Sosa
Registry Member
A Synopsis of Devoted Academics: Ethical Responsibilities and Service in University Leadership
In Devoted Academics: Ethical Responsibilities and Service in University Leadership, Robert V. Smith’s latest book published in 2022, we are transported into a very intimate and comprehensive look at the personal life and professional development of a an accomplished academic and leader in service to higher education for almost 50 years.
Written in five chronological segments, this accomplished academic, and member of the so-called silent generation guides us through his earliest experiences as a child and adolescent in a tightly knit, working class, Catholic family from Glendale, Queens and Patchogue, Long Island NY. So descriptive is the depiction of his family and their first-time experiences with neighbors of different ethnic backgrounds, that you are transported to those times to see the forging of the character and personal values that would later help define many actions he took in his professional life. Some accounts during his life seem to be full-circle events, like the school colors and nick names of his high school in Patchogue and his last administrative post at Texas Tech University.
The author’s young adult and college years are full of friends and mentors and how they helped him through some academic struggles during graduate school, and they would also be marked by two significant events: the tragic death of his father and his wedding. These were quickly followed by his first faculty appointment at the University of Iowa and deferment from being drafted for the Vietnam War in 1968.
Success in teaching, research and grant activities led him to the first of several transitions common to many faculty members – the vagabond life of academics – traveling nationally and internationally to multiple conferences to present talks on the latest accomplishments, participate in workshops and sometimes teach for short terms. But success sometimes also comes with an eagerness for new challenges; thus, administrative positions soon followed, which also meant geographical moves. And then there are moves that are taken due to a change in leadership above your own position, and you realize that you do work “at the pleasure of”. These changes also take a toll on family relationships and illnesses about which the author is quite candid.
Nevertheless, throughout these difficult times, the author maintains a perceptive and unpretentious sense of humor and begins to collect his multiple speeches and presentations resulting in several books on higher education administration, each of which seeks to help new administrators learn how to navigate positions, roles and responsibilities.
Devoted Academics is intertwined with many personal accounts and the reader is steered through the triumphs and struggles of academic life, leadership and a personal life story that reveal the perseverance, empathy and humanity of a life well-lived. Even in “retirement” and after personal changes and significant health challenges, the author continues to focus his attention to supporting the next generation of academic leaders and to the strengthening of higher education through his work with The Registry, an undertaking for which we are all very grateful.
Devoted Academics by Robert V. Smith, PhD
Dr. Robert V. Smith
Registry Senior Consultant
Author of Devoted Academics
Dr. Bob Smith currently serves as a Registry Senior Consultant and previously served for 45 years in faculty and senior administrative positions in six U.S. research universities.
Devoted Academics is guided by the author’s 45-year career in tenured faculty posts (chemical sciences), and significant management and administrative positions at six U.S. research universities. The book is both a personal journey, and a discussion of the challenges, successes, and failures inherent in academic life. In all cases, the author stresses how important an ethical sense of responsibility, accountability, and the development of character are to successful service in academic roles. Devoted Academics is an inspiration to young scholars, contemplating a life in the academy; mid-career academics who can learn from communication and other strategies as they consider future career options; and older academics, who will enjoy comparing their experiences with those of the author and his colleagues.
BOOK REVIEWS
Richard Sax
Registry Member
Devoted Academics Review
Dr. Robert Smith’s academic memoir, Devoted Academics, provides a charming narrative of his academic journey. Technically, it can be considered a graphic novel, since Dusty Higgins has created some very visual and at times funny sketches about the people and issues being discussed. I have appreciated Dr. Smith’s sensitivity and attention to detail in the Registry Interim appointments which he has curated for me, and the same attention to detail informs this text. There is also much wisdom here for all audiences, such as when he notes a 1999 honorary doctorate given to historian David McCullough who “cautioned that learning is not wisdom, the latter only coming from turning what you learn into kindness and ethical service to others” (p. 263).
I especially enjoyed Dr. Smith’s sojourn in Ann Arbor, since my own narrative includes both MA and PhD degrees in English from Michigan, and Graduate Dean John D’Arms (referenced on p. 200) was a mentor to myself as well and awarded me with an Outstanding Teaching award in 1986 for my four years teaching there in the Department of English Language & Literature, 1982-6.
There is much wisdom in this memoir that should be of great use to current and future academic administrators: Where You Stand is Where You Sit (p. 310); New academic leaders need to hit the ground running and listening, and when parachuting into a new academic position, leaders need the support of associates (p. 312). As well, given his long friendship with coach and athletic director Frank Broyles, Smith nicely uses sports jargon to coin the term, “academic triple threat” (p. 304), for colleagues who are truly exemplary in all three areas commonly organized for annual reviews, promotion & tenure: teaching, scholarship, service. We all seek such “academic triple threats”!
___________________________________________________________________________________
Dr. Anny Morrobel-Sosa
Registry Member
A Synopsis of Devoted Academics: Ethical Responsibilities and Service in University Leadership
In Devoted Academics: Ethical Responsibilities and Service in University Leadership, Robert V. Smith’s latest book published in 2022, we are transported into a very intimate and comprehensive look at the personal life and professional development of a an accomplished academic and leader in service to higher education for almost 50 years.
Written in five chronological segments, this accomplished academic, and member of the so-called silent generation guides us through his earliest experiences as a child and adolescent in a tightly knit, working class, Catholic family from Glendale, Queens and Patchogue, Long Island NY. So descriptive is the depiction of his family and their first-time experiences with neighbors of different ethnic backgrounds, that you are transported to those times to see the forging of the character and personal values that would later help define many actions he took in his professional life. Some accounts during his life seem to be full-circle events, like the school colors and nick names of his high school in Patchogue and his last administrative post at Texas Tech University.
The author’s young adult and college years are full of friends and mentors and how they helped him through some academic struggles during graduate school, and they would also be marked by two significant events: the tragic death of his father and his wedding. These were quickly followed by his first faculty appointment at the University of Iowa and deferment from being drafted for the Vietnam War in 1968.
Success in teaching, research and grant activities led him to the first of several transitions common to many faculty members – the vagabond life of academics – traveling nationally and internationally to multiple conferences to present talks on the latest accomplishments, participate in workshops and sometimes teach for short terms. But success sometimes also comes with an eagerness for new challenges; thus, administrative positions soon followed, which also meant geographical moves. And then there are moves that are taken due to a change in leadership above your own position, and you realize that you do work “at the pleasure of”. These changes also take a toll on family relationships and illnesses about which the author is quite candid.
Nevertheless, throughout these difficult times, the author maintains a perceptive and unpretentious sense of humor and begins to collect his multiple speeches and presentations resulting in several books on higher education administration, each of which seeks to help new administrators learn how to navigate positions, roles and responsibilities.
Devoted Academics is intertwined with many personal accounts and the reader is steered through the triumphs and struggles of academic life, leadership and a personal life story that reveal the perseverance, empathy and humanity of a life well-lived. Even in “retirement” and after personal changes and significant health challenges, the author continues to focus his attention to supporting the next generation of academic leaders and to the strengthening of higher education through his work with The Registry, an undertaking for which we are all very grateful.
HIRE AN INTERIM
Searching for an Interim?
Please contact us for more information.
