Development expert returns

Remington pivotal in capital campaign success

 

Bob Remington tried on the retirement hat. It just didn’t fit so well.

Remington has accepted a job as Vice President for Development at Trine University after retiring from the university, then Tri-State University, in August 2007. In his over four years with the university, Remington led capital campaigns with unprecedented success.

“When I came to Tri-State in January 2003, they were in a campaign with a goal of $35 million,” Remington said. “We then raised the goal to $50 million because we had received two significant matching grants from the Lilly Endowment. We thought we’d huff and puff to achieve that, but we did it so quickly we moved the goal to $70 million.”

Retiring then to a Cleveland, Ohio, community where he lived 20 years ago, he planned to slow down with some part-time work. Instead, he took a job with his alma mater, Alderson Broaddus, completing its capital campaign.

That only underscores the long history of fund-raising Remington brings back to Trine. Before working for Tri-State, he spent eight years in development at Colgate Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, N.Y. and another six years as Vice President for Development at Ottawa University in Ottawa, Kansas.

The call to serve Trine surprised and delighted Remington. “I had just drawn my first Social Security check and had to send it back when I received a call from Trine President Earl Brooks inviting me back. No one was more surprised than I. Having failed at retirement, I thought it was a good thing to return,” Remington said.

He praised the Trine board of trustees for their help in a successful capital campaign which eventually reached $90 million and has expanded to a phase two of $75 million. “When they got to $90 million, I was not surprised. They really hung in there. Every goal we set, they helped us reach it,” he said.

So now he’s wearing a work hat again, which suits him. “Earl called upon the celebration of reaching $90 million and said, ‘Would you like to come back for our phase two of $75 million?’ I have a high regard for Dr. Brooks, and I was honored to come back. How could I say no to such an offer? And I’m enjoying it,” he said.