Locals praise selection of Forsee as University of Missouri president

The selection of Gary Forsee, the Cape Girardeau Central High School graduate and former CEO of Sprint/Nextel Corp., to lead the University of Missouri system is winning strong praise from longtime friends and a former curator.

Forsee moved to Cape Girardeau with his family in 1966, graduated from high school and returned during summer breaks from the University of Missouri-Rolla to work for Procter & Gamble. He and his wife, Sherry Forsee, a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University, have maintained ties to the region, and in 2000 donated $25,000 to the Southeast Missouri University Foundation for an endowed scholarship.

"I think he would do an excellent job," said Dr. Jay Sheets, a dentist who graduated from high school with Forsee in 1968.

Sheets said he and Forsee see each other periodically but they have not spoken since Forsee was removed a chairman of Sprint/Nextel in October. "He is a very organized person, he has great people skills and he would be a huge asset to the University of Missouri system."

Former UM curator John Lichtenegger of Jackson, who has been critical of several recent higher education policy steps taken by Gov. Matt Blunt and the Missouri Legislature, said he views the selection of Forsee as an exciting development.

One strong argument for Forsee's selection, Lichtenegger said, is what some may consider a weakness -- Forsee is moving from the business world to the university and does not have a background as an academic administrator. His financial independence -- Forsee's severance package from Sprint was valued at $54 million and his annual compensation was $14.8 million -- means the job's pay is not a financial motivation, Lichtenegger said.

"He will be able to say and do what he believes is right and fight for additional funding for the university," Lichtenegger said. "He should be a great leader for change and take us to the level where we needed to go."

As an advocate for better funding for the University of Missouri, he will also be an advocate for better funding for higher education throughout the state, Lichtenegger said.

While Lichtenegger said he has not spoken to Forsee personally, he has visited with several of Forsee's friends in Southeast Missouri who have been in touch with Forsee. Lichtenegger also said he attended a presidential search committee meeting in Portageville, Mo., where those who spoke talked of the need for a strong leader "who would hit the ground running." Forsee "has demonstrated leadership in the past and Forsee fits that bill," Lichtenegger said.

The main role of the president is not as an academic but rather as a political advocate, a diplomat and a manager of a business that employs 20,000 people across the state, Lichtenegger noted.

"The academic enhancement and leadership has to be on the campuses," he said. "There is a signal in hiring a non-academic that the chancellors are going to have a strong role and for the visions they have for their campuses."

Walter Lamkin, a 1968 Cape Girardeau Central graduate who is a partner in a St. Louis law firm, is a close friend of Forsee. "His judgment is impeccable, and he has the ability to negotiate through political matters that is necessary for anyone running a major university system."

Forsee has met with both Gov. Matt Blunt and Attorney General Jay Nixon, Blunt's likely Democratic opponent in the 2008 election, seeking guarantees for increased funding for state colleges and universities prior to taking the job, sources said.

"My interpretation is that he is very comfortable in who he is and what he would be setting out to do," Lamkin said. "I have every confidence that he can take the university forward to its rightful place among the great universities."

All of his former classmates contacted for this report said Forsee has retained the values he exhibited at Cape Girardeau Central throughout his life. He has lived and worked in Europe, sat at the pinnacle of the world's largest corporations and knows people at the highest levels of business and government, Lamkin said. "When he several weeks ago on a road trip spent the night at my house, he was as normal as was when I met him."

Pat Godwin, a retired executive for Procter & Gamble, was a classmate in Cape Girardeau and a fraternity brother of Forsee at UMR. They also worked together in the summers during college at Procter & Gamble on engineering projects.

"He is obviously not doing this for the money," Godwin said. "He is doing this because he feels an obligation to the university system and he feels it is his obligation to give back."

rkeller@semissourian.com

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