Issue date: 12/8/06 Section: News

Spencer Selvidge - THE BATTALION A&M President Robert M. Gates, the incoming U.S. Secretary of Defense, stands in his office overlooking Aggieland on Thursday afternoon.

Robert Gates is an unassuming man.

With his snow-white hair, fair skin and Midwestern-accented voice that rarely changes tone, the outgoing president of Texas A&M seems like a man who could easily slip into a crowd unnoticed, like his former job as a spy required.

However, Gates captured the admiration and love of many of the University's faculty, staff, students and others through his unusually forthright charisma and willingness to act.

For a former Central Intelligence Agency director and adviser working under five presidents, coming to a university he knew hardly anything about - Texas A&M - was something he didn't really expect.

"I didn't know anything about A&M and had never been here before," Gates said about coming to A&M in 1999 to serve as interim dean of the George Bush School of Government and Public Service. "I came here not because it was A&M, but because of George (H.W.) Bush."

Living in the MSC Hotel while working at the Bush School changed his mind about A&M, as he saw the camaraderie among students and the strongly held traditions.

"There is nothing like the traditions of Texas A&M," Gates said. "I've lectured at 30 or 40 other schools over the years, and I've never found anything remotely comparable."

And, nearly five years later, Gates will leave the job he said he loves. He reflected on the work he has done during a tenure many have likened to another legendary University president, Earl Rudder.

"The principle priorities have been expansion on campus and the faculty reinvestment," he said. "I think another change that I didn't set out to make a goal, but happened anyway, was the strengthening of the community."

With the popularity he has gained on campus among students and staff, Gates said he understands why some dread his departure, but that he knows this University will thrive long after he is gone.

"I believe the legacy I will leave will be more lasting than anything I did in Washington," he said. "Presidents come and go, but the faculty will stay, and the students will stay - sometimes too long."

Continued...

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