Memorable words, personal items, an original sketch by a noted local artist, a poem by a longtime faculty member and photos from the tenure of the late University of Nevada, Reno President Milt Glick are currently on display in the breezeway of the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center.
Located near Room 221, the glass case commemorates Glick, the University’s 15th president who passed away on April 16 at the age of 73, in personal and touching detail.
Several photos feature Glick with the people he most enjoyed on the University campus – the students. He warmly shakes hands with students in one photo; in another, he stands near the steps of the Knowledge Center on a warm fall day not unlike the beginning of every school year at the University, flanked by the dozens of National Merit Scholar students who came to a University buoyed by Glick’s “culture of student success.” Another photo is of Glick’s back, on a lonely road in rural Nevada during an outreach tour, lugging a wheeled suitcase behind him.
In addition to the photos, a sketch of Glick by Reno artist Ron Oden, which was used in the 2011 Spring Commencement program, is featured, as is the slightly battered hat – still ringed with sweat – that became almost as well as known on campus as Glick’s soft-spoken words.
The hat and the man who served the campus so well is celebrated in a poem written by Cheryl Hug-English, a longtime faculty member in the University of Nevada School of Medicine. The poem concludes with the line, “Under that hat … was a man I am proud to have known.”
Also prominently displayed are some of Glick’s own words, including a passage from his Spring 2009 Commencement address:
“So go out today and find the right people. Find the right things. Honor yourself and all of us here today by living the life that is right for you. Always remember that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and goodness. Go forward today and invest your heart in everything you do.”
All of the items in the display were donated to Special Collections.
