ASU Retirees Association (ASURA) Video History Project Interviews

The Rio Salado Project began in the College of Architecture in the fall of 1966 when Dean James Elmore proposed to the studio faculty "Let's do something with the (Salt) River." This is a collection of videos describing the progress of the project since students presented their work over 50 years ago. The most prominent development is the Tempe Town Lake.

Frank Joseph Kush is best known for his outstanding achievements in football, both as an All-American player at Michigan State University and as the head coach of ASU. Upon completion of his two-year commitment to the U.S. Army, Dan Devine, Head Coach at Arizona State, offered Frank an assistant coaching position in 1955 where he served as an Assistant Coach until 1958 when Dan Devine left and Frank assumed the role of Head Coach until 1979.

Panel Discussion by J. Russell Nelson, Frank Sackton and Brent Brown on the history of ASU during the presidency of Russell Nelson, 1981 -- 1989. Recorded in February 2006. It was a wide ranging discussion including the birth of West Campus, the coming of the Cardinal football team, handling NCAA violations including protecting Jim Brock, moving the research agenda forward toward a Research 1 University.

Dr. Larry E. Penley was the dean of the W. P. Carey School of Business for 12 years. Dr. Penley came to ASU in 1985 and served for one year as the Chair of the Management Department within the College of Business. He was born in Virginia but grew up in eastern Tennessee. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Lake Forest University and then went on to receive his PhD in management from the University of Georgia.

As mentioned, Dr. Penley came to ASU in 1985 as the Chair of the Management Department. He assumed the role of interim Dean for the College of Business when then Dean, John Kraft left ASU. In this interview he describes the College of Business as it developed a top ranked graduate program as well as a top ranked undergraduate program. He also touches on how the College would later become known as the W. P. Carey School of Business.

A native of Akron, Ohio, Jack Kingsinger started his career fresh out of high school as a navigator in the Air Force toward the end of World War II. When the war ended, he pursued a double major Bachelors degree in Chemistry and Mathematics at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio. He then went on to get a Masters degree in Chemistry from Cornell University. While working in private industry, he took advantage of the education benefits offered by the company he was working at and worked at getting his PhD in Chemistry from Penn. Academia was calling him, so he joined the faculty in the Chemistry Department at Michigan State. He later became the Chair of the department before leaving to become the Director of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation. He returned to Michigan State as the Assistant VP of Research which led to becoming the Associate Provost.

His journey to Arizona State University was actually initiated on a trip he made to visit the Chemistry Department as part of his role with the NSF. He was very impressed with the campus and when the position of Vice President of Academic Affairs opened up, he was quick to pursue it. He was hired by then President J. Russell Nelson and worked on many initiatives until his retirement.

An interview about the life and professional career of Linda Wells who was ASU's Women's softball Coach from 1989-2005. Linda was active in many sports and school activities from an early age, growing up in Pacific Missouri. She graduated from SE Missouri State and the University of Minnesota, majoring in Exercise Physiology. After graduating, she was the School's first full time women's coach. She was an All-American, professional softball player and coach. She came to ASU in 1989 as Women's Softball Coach. While there, she competed at the highest level, being involved in international and Olympic softball. She retired in 2005. Her team scrapbooks from ASU 1989 -- 2005 are available through the ASU Library Archives.

Dr. Milton Glick grew up wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a jeweler. However, his father had other plans for him and insisted that he attend college. Milt received his undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Augustana College in his hometown of Rock Island, IL. He went on to receive his PhD in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He spent 2 years as a Post-Doctoral student at Cornell University before joining the faculty of Wayne State University. From there, he went to serve as Dean at the University of Missouri and then Provost at Iowa State University, serving as interim President in his final year. In 1991 he joined the administration of ASU as Provost and remained here for 15 years. He spent almost 5 years as President of the University of Nevada, Reno before unexpectedly passing away of a stroke in April 2011.

In this interview, Milt talks about his goals of improving the quality of the faculty at ASU from being the “ordinary” that he found when he arrived to becoming the “extraordinary”. He attributes his success in improving faculty salaries as one aspect of achieving this goal. He talks about the challenges ASU had living in the shadows of the greatness of the University of Arizona and overcoming those to where the UofA now looks up to ASU! Milt also talks about his role as the “Zen master of managing limited budgets” during his years at ASU. And he speaks of the special relationship he had with now President Michael Crow, from his years at Iowa State, to using Michael as a consultant and mentor to him in his role as Provost at ASU and finally to having Dr. Crow as his “boss”. Throughout the interview, Milt stressed his love for ASU and mentioned that ASU was “more than just a destination for sunlight.”