Hamm ’66 named interim president - Summer 2008 Wartburg Magazine - Wartburg College

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Hamm ’66 named interim president

In late May, the Board of Regents elected Hamm as interim president. Hamm officially assumed his new responsibilities July 1

by Saul Shapiro

Dr. William E. Hamm ’66 is home again.

In late May, the Board of Regents elected Hamm as interim president, succeeding Jack Ohle who resigned after 10 years to take the helm of Gustavus Adolphus College in
St. Peter, Minn.

Hamm officially assumed his new responsibilities July 1. He is the former president of Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa, and just had announced his retirement after nine years as president of the Foundation for Independent Higher Education in Washington, D.C.

“We are very pleased and fortunate to welcome Bill Hamm home to Wartburg to guide us through this period of transition,” said Fred W. Hagemann ’67, chairman of the Board of Regents. “Not only is he an alumnus with a great love for this institution, but he is nationally respected in higher education with an extensive administrative background.”

Hamm, who won’t be a candidate for the permanent position, is excited about returning to his alma mater.

“Everyone who knows me will confirm that I ‘bleed Orange,’” he wrote. “Being an alumnus surely colors the prism through which I view Wartburg. Even so, I firmly believe this is an exceptional college. My positive perceptions of Wartburg have only increased as I have assumed various responsibilities in other parts of the nation.”

Hamm was student body president at Wartburg and worked in the Admissions Office after graduation. In many ways, though, he has never left. He received an honorary degree from Wartburg in 1986 and, as a member of the Commission Wartburg steering committee, was involved in developing the plan that has guided the college’s academic and enrollment growth and campus transformation during the past 10 years.

Hamm received his master’s degree from the University of Iowa and completed the College Management Program at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

At the FIHE, which oversees a national network of 34 state and regional associations and develops resources for private colleges and universities, Hamm established new partnerships with corporations, yielding scholarship funding and boosting endowments. The FIHE foundation board created an annual scholarship in Hamm’s honor at Wartburg after he announced he would be retiring.

Hamm guided Waldorf College for 13 years (1986-99), including its transition from a two-year college to an accredited four-year institution. It also is a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Earlier, he served as vice president for admissions and university relations at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. He received an honorary alumnus award from CLU in 1986. CLU’s annual William E. Hamm Outstanding Service Award honors individuals engaged in exemplary community service.

Hamm was the recipient of an honorary doctor of laws from the University of Charleston in West Virginia this spring. In 1999, he was named Iowa’s Global Citizen of the Year. He also has served on numerous state, regional and national boards.

Shapiro is assistant vice president for Institutional Advancement