Skorton to depart in 2015 for Smithsonian

[nyc94]

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/03/president-skorton-lead-smithsonian-institution

[George64]

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/03/president-skorton-lead-smithsonian-institution

Interesting conversation with David Skorton.

[Al DeFlorio]

So whom do we steal from the University of Iowa this time?  Skorton was perfect for Cornell.  I hate to lose him.

[Jeff Hopkins '82]

So whom do we steal from the University of Iowa this time?  Skorton was perfect for Cornell.  I hate to lose him.

Maybe a football coach/  ::whistle::

[KeithK]

So whom do we steal from the University of Iowa this time?  Skorton was perfect for Cornell.  I hate to lose him.

Maybe a football coach/  ::whistle::

I think that would be kidnapping.

[billhoward]

So whom do we steal from the University of Iowa this time?  Skorton was perfect for Cornell.  I hate to lose him.

+1

[David Harding]

It seems to me that Skorton is the first Cornell president to leave for the purpose of taking another position.  Some have hung around after retiring, others have taken other positions after retiring, and others have done things after being forced out, but I can't think of any who quit for the purpose of taking another job.  Am I missing someone?

[billhoward]

It seems to me that Skorton is the first Cornell president to leave for the purpose of taking another position.  Some have hung around after retiring, others have taken other positions after retiring, and others have done things after being forced out, but I can't think of any who quit for the purpose of taking another job.  Am I missing someone?

It's a small sample size. There's only one outsider outlier, Hunter Rawlings, young enough to have taken another job, who didn't (other than to go back to teaching).

Dale Corson, president 1969-77, had been at Cornell since just after WWII (meaning he got to see some decent football games), He was 63 when he retired, he could possibly have gone somewhere else, but he liked Ithaca, and for three years after being president he was university chancellor. He was not very flamboyant but he turned out to have been the right man to bring Cornell back from the 1960s unrest that changed the fabric of Cornell.

Frank Rhodes, 1977-1995, was 69 when he stepped down. Even when you step down, you're on so many boards around the country that it's not like you're instantly retired.

Hunter Rawlings, 1995-2003, was 59 when he stepped down. He could have gone elsewhere. Recall that during the last 2 years as president, he also taught an undergrad course in the classics; afterwards, he continued teaching. Maybe he was a professor at heart, so he did take another position of sorts. (Like Skorton, his previous stop was president of Iowa.)

Jeff Lehman '77, 2003-2005, was a relative kid when he, er, resigned - 52 years old. So it made sense that he'd move on.

David Skorton, 2006-, is 64 now and he perhaps wanted one last act doing something different. He will be a tough act to follow.

[marty]

Skorton Leaves NYRA

[ugarte]

Skorton Leaves NYRA

For a second I thought "He left Cornell to go to the NYRA? That doesn't seem right."

[David Harding]

Recently I heard a radio interview with the incoming Secretary of the Smithsonian.  This confused me because I thought I would have heard if something had happened to Skorton, here if nowhere else.  Turnd out I had missed the announcements from  the Smithsonian and Association of American Medical Colleges of his resignation from the Smithsonian effective June 15 to take the postion of president and CEO of the AAMC.