Death of President Emeritus William O. Rieke
April 29, 2006
President Emeritus William O. Rieke died Saturday, April 22, after a courageous battle with cancer. He was 74. A remembrance and celebration of Rieke’s life was held during chapel last Friday in Lagerquist Concert Hall. The memorial service was last Saturday, April 29.
A physician, research scholar, teacher, faculty colleague, college administrator and mentor to thousands of students, William O. Rieke had two distinct professional careers. He will be remembered as an outstanding teacher and as being among the international elite in the field of transplant biology. His original research helped make heart transplantation possible. Later, he followed his heart’s desire to share his commitment to quality undergraduate education and living a purposeful life when he took the path back to his alma mater and the presidency of Pacific Lutheran University.
William O. Rieke was inaugurated the 11th president of Pacific Lutheran University in 1975. A gifted, proven leader, he set out to guide the university at a busy, productive and gratifying pace. He became known for a structured approach to institutional planning with continual updates of five-year plans and for renewing relations with the church, community and other PLU constituencies. Bill and his wife, Joanne E. (Schief) Rieke ’54, worked as a team to build institutional strength and momentum throughout his presidency.
By the time of his retirement in 1992, through Bill Rieke’s leadership, PLU had gained national and international prestige as an institution with a strong liberal arts program, enhanced by five professional schools. An Exxon Educational Fund survey in 1986 named him among the top five percent of effective college and university presidents in the United States. His efforts in strengthening international ties led to his being named Knight First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by King Olav V in 1989.
During President Rieke’s tenure, the School of Business M.B.A. program was first accredited in 1976. In 1982 the accounting program was one of the first to be nationally accredited. The School of Music was accredited in 1979 and in 1982 the chemistry department was ranked among the top three percent in the country among comparable institutions. These are just examples of the many academic strides made under his leadership.
In 1978 a capital fund campaign was launched that included the goal of building a new $8.9 million science building. In 1981 the campaign received what was then the largest single gift in the university’s history: $1.5 million from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. When the science building was dedicated in 1985, the regents honored the current president by naming it the William O. Rieke Science Center.
Other campus developments during the Rieke years included the dedication of the Names Fitness Center, the issuance of bonds for the renovation of Ramstad Hall and a third-floor addition to Mortvedt Library. Several new majors and academic concentrations were added to the university curriculum under the leadership of Bill Rieke including majors in anthropology, marriage and family therapy and social work. Multidisciplinary and cooperative global studies and legal studies programs also emerged. In the humanities division, Norwegian and Scandinavian studies majors were added. The mathematics department became the mathematics and computer science department and a new computer engineering major was established.
The Pacific Lutheran University campus stands taller today thanks to the skills, abilities and leadership of William O. Rieke. Let us thank God for sharing with us his gifts.
Rieke spent the last ten years of his career as the Executive Director of the Ben B. Cheney Foundation.
Bill Rieke was a 1953 Summa Cum Laude graduate of PLU, where he was active in student life and an accomplished debater. In 1958 he completed an M.D. degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine. He was the top graduating student of his class. He joined the faculty there where he taught until 1966. Between 1957 and 1973 he published more than 50 papers and abstracts, dealing primarily with cellular immunology.
In 1966 Bill Rieke became professor and chair of the anatomy department at the University of Iowa, which he built into one of the most rigorous and popular science departments there. He served briefly as acting medical school dean at Iowa. In 1971, he was appointed vice-chancellor for health affairs and professor of anatomy at the University of Kansas Medical Center where he also directed the medical school. He is credited with mobilizing the support of citizens and state government in the affairs of the medical center.
At the peak of his career in the administration of medical science, Bill Rieke was called to new challenges and a new side of his life – responding, as he called it, to seek “the blend between what we believe and what we learn and think.”
Bill Rieke is survived by Joanne; three children, Susan (Rieke) Smith ’79 and her husband Jeffry Smith ’78; Stephen Rieke ’81 and his wife Eileen (Brandenburg) Rieke ’82; Marcus Rieke ’86 and his wife Paula (Smith) Rieke ’88; and eight grandchildren.
William O. Rieke was inaugurated the 11th president of Pacific Lutheran University in 1975. A gifted, proven leader, he set out to guide the university at a busy, productive and gratifying pace. He became known for a structured approach to institutional planning with continual updates of five-year plans and for renewing relations with the church, community and other PLU constituencies. Bill and his wife, Joanne E. (Schief) Rieke ’54, worked as a team to build institutional strength and momentum throughout his presidency.
By the time of his retirement in 1992, through Bill Rieke’s leadership, PLU had gained national and international prestige as an institution with a strong liberal arts program, enhanced by five professional schools. An Exxon Educational Fund survey in 1986 named him among the top five percent of effective college and university presidents in the United States. His efforts in strengthening international ties led to his being named Knight First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit by King Olav V in 1989.
During President Rieke’s tenure, the School of Business M.B.A. program was first accredited in 1976. In 1982 the accounting program was one of the first to be nationally accredited. The School of Music was accredited in 1979 and in 1982 the chemistry department was ranked among the top three percent in the country among comparable institutions. These are just examples of the many academic strides made under his leadership.
In 1978 a capital fund campaign was launched that included the goal of building a new $8.9 million science building. In 1981 the campaign received what was then the largest single gift in the university’s history: $1.5 million from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. When the science building was dedicated in 1985, the regents honored the current president by naming it the William O. Rieke Science Center.
Other campus developments during the Rieke years included the dedication of the Names Fitness Center, the issuance of bonds for the renovation of Ramstad Hall and a third-floor addition to Mortvedt Library. Several new majors and academic concentrations were added to the university curriculum under the leadership of Bill Rieke including majors in anthropology, marriage and family therapy and social work. Multidisciplinary and cooperative global studies and legal studies programs also emerged. In the humanities division, Norwegian and Scandinavian studies majors were added. The mathematics department became the mathematics and computer science department and a new computer engineering major was established.
The Pacific Lutheran University campus stands taller today thanks to the skills, abilities and leadership of William O. Rieke. Let us thank God for sharing with us his gifts.
Rieke spent the last ten years of his career as the Executive Director of the Ben B. Cheney Foundation.
Bill Rieke was a 1953 Summa Cum Laude graduate of PLU, where he was active in student life and an accomplished debater. In 1958 he completed an M.D. degree from the University of Washington School of Medicine. He was the top graduating student of his class. He joined the faculty there where he taught until 1966. Between 1957 and 1973 he published more than 50 papers and abstracts, dealing primarily with cellular immunology.
In 1966 Bill Rieke became professor and chair of the anatomy department at the University of Iowa, which he built into one of the most rigorous and popular science departments there. He served briefly as acting medical school dean at Iowa. In 1971, he was appointed vice-chancellor for health affairs and professor of anatomy at the University of Kansas Medical Center where he also directed the medical school. He is credited with mobilizing the support of citizens and state government in the affairs of the medical center.
At the peak of his career in the administration of medical science, Bill Rieke was called to new challenges and a new side of his life – responding, as he called it, to seek “the blend between what we believe and what we learn and think.”
Bill Rieke is survived by Joanne; three children, Susan (Rieke) Smith ’79 and her husband Jeffry Smith ’78; Stephen Rieke ’81 and his wife Eileen (Brandenburg) Rieke ’82; Marcus Rieke ’86 and his wife Paula (Smith) Rieke ’88; and eight grandchildren.