ASU Retirees Association (ASURA) Video History Project Interviews

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.”