Former IU Kokomo Chancellor Thompson dies in Florida
March 19, 2007
KOKOMO, Ind.—Hugh Thompson, former chancellor of Indiana University Kokomo, died on March 15 in Florida, where he’d lived since 1999. Under Thompson’s leadership from 1980–1990, the campus doubled the acreage of its Washington Street location, built the Kelley Student Center, and added 20 new degree programs.
Thompson cultivated extensive community support for the university in north central Indiana, including the campus’s longtime friendship with Tipton County entrepreneur Ed Kelley, a major donor for whom the Kelley Student Center and the Kelley House are named. “Ed Kelley continued his strong interest in and support of IU Kokomo up to his death in 2003, and I was lucky to be mentored by him,” said current Chancellor Ruth Person. “So, IU Kokomo and I are both significantly indebted to Chancellor Thompson’s legacy.”
Charlie Nelms, Indiana University’s Vice President of Institutional Development and Student Affairs in Bloomington, praised Thompson as “an ardent and steadfast advocate for regional campus development.
“Many of the current baccalaureate degree programs, as well as facilities, at IU Kokomo resulted from Hugh’s leadership,” Nelms said. “A person of enormous energy, passion, and commitment to students, [Thompson] worked tirelessly to advance collaboration between internal and external constituencies to make higher education more readily available to the citizens of central Indiana and beyond.”
IU Kokomo’s Vice Chancellor for Student Services Jack Tharp said Thompson introduced “management by objectives” to IU Kokomo’s administrative staff. “We were constantly being measured—more students, more gifts, more degrees, more land, more buildings, more faculty.”
Tharp worked on campus fundraising with Thompson and recalled the chancellor’s drive to expand the campus physically. “Our first major fund raising gift [in 1981] was a $100,000 anonymous gift from Mr. [Ed] Kelley. The gift was designated for land acquisition and given with the stipulation that it be matched. Within eight years, the campus size had been doubled, making way for new buildings.” Thompson’s close relationship with another benefactor, Kenneth Herrick of the Herrick Foundation in Detroit, quietly generated a total $1 million in gifts to IU Kokomo during Thompson’ tenure, according to Tharp.
“There were never enough hours in the day for Hugh, with his signature early morning breakfast meetings,” Tharp added. “On more than one occasion, he asked me to accompany him to Indianapolis, for the sole purpose of squeezing in a ‘car meeting.’ ”
Hugh Thompson became IU Kokomo’s fourth chancellor in August 1980, succeeding Victor Bogle. During his career, Thompson also served as president of the Detroit Institute of Technology and Siena Heights College, both in Michigan, and Washburn University in Kansas. He was academic vice president at Clark College in Iowa and Meyer University in Ohio.
His wife, Patricia Thompson of Cape Canaveral, Fla., survives him, along with four daughters, ten grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
