Bobby Fong (c. 1950 – September 8, 2014) was an American academic and the President of Ursinus College in

Collegeville, Pennsylvania Collegeville is a borough in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, a suburb outside of Philadelphia on Perkiomen Creek. Collegeville was incorporated in 1896. It is the location of Ursinus College which opened in 1869. The population was 5,089 at t ...

Background

Fong grew up in

Chinatown A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, the son of Chinese immigrants. He graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

with a degree in English and was elected to

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

. In 1978 he earned a Ph.D. in English literature from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

, writing his dissertation on the works of

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

. His academic career began at Berea College. He later served as Dean of Arts and Humanities and Professor of English at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. In 1995 he became Dean of the Faculty and Professor of English at Hamilton College (New York).

Butler University

On June 1, 2001 Fong became the 20th president of Butler University in

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

. In 2010, Butler's surprising run in the

NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

tournament brought the small school and its president national attention. Butler advanced to the Final Four, beating

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

before losing to

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

in the championship game. In a profile in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', Fong spoke about finding the right balance for college athletics. "We work from the presumption that there should be not a gap between academic excellence and athletic excellence," he told author

William C. Rhoden William C. Rhoden is an American sports journalist and author, who formerly worked as a columnist for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 until 2016, when he joined ESPN's The Undefeated as a writer-at-large, where he is currently employed. Rhoden ...

. "The expectation is that you are here to be a student first." In a column for the '' Chronicle of Higher Education'', Fong noted that "for many people, we exemplified how a university could seek a proper balance between academic seriousness and athletic excellence—and without breaking the bank." In October, 2010, Fong announced that he would leave Butler the following summer to assume the presidency at Ursinus.

Ursinus College

Fong became president of Ursinus on July 1, 2011. In 2012, he was elected Chair of the Board of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, a national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. A 2012 profile in ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' noted that at the time, Fong was one of only 40 Asian Americans serving as college presidents in the U.S. On September 8, 2014, Fong died suddenly of natural causes at his home in Collegeville. Fong is credited for spearheading a strategic plan for Ursinus College that aimed to strengthen Ursinus's core curriculum in the liberal arts, while building on its recognition domestically and abroad. One of his highest priorities as president also included planning a new Innovation and Discovery center, a building that will connect the current two science buildings on campus, and which will provide a space that will foster the continued growth and connectivity of the sciences across interdisciplinary fields.

Awards

In 2011 Fong received the President's Awards from National Association of Student Personnel Administrators for his efforts to advance the quality of student life at Butler and throughout higher education.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fong, Bobby 1950 births 2014 deaths Heads of universities and colleges in the United States Ursinus College faculty American people of Chinese descent Harvard College alumni People from Oakland, California University of California, Los Angeles alumni Hamilton College (New York) faculty Berea College faculty Hope College faculty Butler University faculty

Background

Butler University

Ursinus College

Awards

See also

References