Forum editorial: No one did it the way Dille did
Roland Dille was among a very few who, as they say, owned the room. His outsized personality was matched by his intellectual depth. His public speaking skills were nourished by his credibility. His dedication to his university complemented his commitment to learning. When Roland Dille spoke, everyone within earshot was compelled to listen.
Dille, retired president of Minnesota State University Moorhead, died Monday at age 89. He leaves a record that is the standard by which every president since his time and in the future will be measured. His 26 years at MSUM’s helm, and the years afterward during which he was anything but retired, comprise an era in higher education and community service that will be nearly impossible to match.
He certainly was known for his sparkling and sometimes cutting wit, and his mastery of the English language he loved. But Dille also had the character and strength of his convictions to guide the campus through tumultuous times. During the student upheavals in the late-1960s and early ’70s he had to strike a precarious balance between freedom to protest and the requirements of common decency. Given the times, the task was daunting. Not everyone who experienced those years was pleased with his solutions, which suggests he probably got it right.
He took on diversity on campus decades before it became a buzzword. For his trouble, he was vilified by some elements on and off campus, but he persevered. He was right then, and the ensuing years proved he was right.
Dille also was a builder. During his tenure, the campus grew and took on the shape and size it has today.
A career as long and distinguished as Dille’s is filled with accomplishments large and small. But if there was a theme in his work, it was his unwavering focus on learning – on education in the most inclusive frame. He viewed a college education as education in the broadest and deepest liberal sense, not merely training for a job. He believed a truly learned person was one who knew and appreciated language, the arts, the great books, history and political science, even when the concentration was in the hard sciences.
In a capsule, his philosophy of education could have been summed up: An engineer might be able build a fine bridge, but if he doesn’t know who Shakespeare was, he’s not educated. That cut-to-the-chase style was part of Dille’s rhetorical tool kit, not only in his role as university president but also as a thinker and communicator.
Surely, he will be missed on campus and in the larger community he served so well for so many years. His legacy will live on. We join his family, friends and admirers in celebrating an extraordinary life.