Between them, they've managed our money for 55 years, from a time when our overall operating budget was a mere $4.4 million and our endowment was only $1 million to today's $113 million operations budget and $38.8 million endowment.

The President's Office recently hosted a reception honoring Vice Presidents Paul Isbell and Terry Rector. Pictured here, from left, President Bell, TTU Foundation Chairperson Judy Davis, and Isbell.

The careers of Vice Presidents Paul Isbell and Terry Rector have left an indelible mark on the culture of the university, say their friends and peers, and that's why their impending retirements will be such a loss to our campus.

"Tennessee Tech never had finer friends than Terry Rector and Paul Isbell," says President Bob Bell. "Both have faced some of the most difficult challenges in recent memory, given the constant erosion of state funding and the consequent need for private funding. And both have risen to the challenge and found creative, effective solutions to address our problems, proving to be sound fiscal managers. Paul and Terry have given the best years of their lives to this university, and that devotion has reaped rewards. TTU is the fortunate beneficiary of their integrity and tireless work."

Paul Isbell, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, first came to TTU in 1982 as a professor in our Military Sciences program. In 1986, after a year as assistant director of our Placement and Cooperative Education Office, he joined the College of Business as development coordinator, spearheading the college's first capital campaign, which saw the creation of our two chairs of excellence and raised $3.2 million.

In 1990, on the success of that campaign, he was named executive director of our University Advancement Office. With just a handful of staff members, he was charged with directing the first university-wide capital campaign, Sharing the Vision, which raised $21.5 million between 1992 and 1997. He successfully built our fund-raising operation from scratch, putting in place the personnel and protocol necessary to support the mammoth effort of a capital campaign.

"Paul grew the University Advancement program from a fledging enterprise to a full-service development operation that is respected throughout the state," says Tom Hamilton, associate vice president for University Development. "He's always set high standards for the division with high expectations of performance. His leadership has been an inspiration to those of us who have worked for him. His success — University Advancement's success — has been in the hiring and training of our people and encouraging and allowing them to reach their full potential.

In the years since Sharing the Vision, Isbell has directed a program that has established 424 new endowments and increased our alumni donor count from 2,852 to 5,447 and our planned giving expectancies from virtually zero to $22.9 million. He was named vice president for University Advancement in 1999.

"There aren't enough adjectives to describe a man as distinguished as Paul Isbell," says Sharon Rader, director of Advancement Services, who's worked with Isbell for nearly 15 years. "He's both a good leader and an outstanding manager, and that's a hard combination to find. He leads by example, and he has high expectations and challenges everyone in his division to excel. He always gives everyone else the credit for the good things, but he takes the responsibility for anything else. We're extremely lucky that Mr. Hamilton is staying for the transition, but Mr. Isbell's an extremely hard act for anyone to follow, and I'm going to miss him tremendously."

Vice President Terry Rector at the retirement reception. Pictured here: President Bell, Rector, his wife, Judy, and their granddaughter, Kinsley.

Terry Rector, a graduate of our Accounting and Education programs and a veteran of the Tennessee Army National Guard, joined the TTU administration as one of only two accountants on our campus in 1965. He moved steadily up the ranks in our business division, reaching the vice presidency for Business and Fiscal Affairs in 1986. He's the longest-serving vice president for business in the Tennessee Board of Regents system.

Rector's leadership has been flexible and progressive, willing to change with the times. But it's also been conservative and fiscally responsible, proof of which comes from the fact that TTU has never had an audit finding under his watch, a tremendous feat for an operation as big as ours.

"Terry is a stickler for policies and procedures, although he's always been as flexible as he can be," says Linda Maxwell, associate vice president for Business and Fiscal Affairs. "He's good at working things out to everyone's satisfaction, and that's important in a leader — to be able to work with people and look at the big picture before you pick which side to take. It works best for the university, so that we can get the most mileage out of our money and still help the faculty and others do what they need to do."

Maxwell has worked with Rector since 1973, when she joined the administration.

"We've had a great relationship. He's been a great boss. He's always available to listen and help. He's good in that he doesn't micromanage. I'll miss him and his sense of humor and his stories; I'll miss him as a leader and a boss and a friend. It's like losing part of your family."

Rector, taking advantage of new technologies, has overseen the streamlining of our financial system, from implementing direct-deposit for salaries and financial aid to "e-check" for students, a web-based system for employee benefits reporting, and even the shift to credit cards for office purchases.

Several huge projects have also taken place under his direction, including the construction of our current library, the Fitness Center and, most recently, our new freshman residence complex. Other additions to our campus have been more modest but have made an impact: new entrances, street signs and campus and street lighting, as well as improvements to our utilities infrastructure, grounds and food service operations. In addition, Rector has overseen planning for our master plan, including projects on the horizon: buildings to house our Nursing program and the fledgling STEM Center, as well as a complex to house many of our engineering and science programs.

But there has been no greater challenge for Rector during his career than the shift in state spending away from higher education. Balancing the budget of an aging campus seeing budget cuts for the past 15 years has required a tough approach to fiscal affairs, and Rector has had to make some hard decisions along the way. Several years ago, for instance, as a means of increasing campus revenue, he contracted out our bookstore and food services operations.

Through it all, he never forgot the importance of relationships.

"Terry has been a colleague and a mentor for years, but more importantly, he's been a friend," says Darla Wilhite, administrative assistant in the Business Office. She's worked under Rector's direction since 1990. "I've learned from him how important it is to be considerate of your employees, to be understanding. We're a good team, and we work well together, and we're all going to miss him."

Both Isbell and Rector leave the university effective June 30. Hamilton will assume the role of vice president for University Advancement on an interim basis, and Maxwell will step into the vice presidency for Business and Fiscal Affairs on an interim basis beginning July 1.