Robert Glidden, Reflections

The OHIO-CHUBU Relationship—A Brief Essay

Robert Glidden, President Emeritus

Suffice it to say that I was well informed about the warm and friendly relationship between Ohio University and the Chubu Institute of Technology from the earliest days of my tenure as president of Ohio University, and that was probably at least partly because of the close  friendship between my predecessor at OHIO, President Charles Ping, and the then-president of the Chubu Institute, Kazuo Yamada. As I understand it, the relationship between the two institutions predated the friendship between Presidents Ping and Yamada, as I believe Physics Professor Tomoyasu Tanaka is credited with first bringing the two institutions together. I remember Professor Tanaka well. He was a friendly, outgoing person who was impossible not to like personally and to admire professionally. He was, I am sure, universally admired and appreciated on both campuses.

For me, as a new president, I was delighted to have a partnering institution in Japan. In a previous life, when I was president of the National Association of Schools of Music in the U.S. (1988), I had spent a week in Japan as a guest of the Japan Foundation delivering lectures, mostly to the faculty of music conservatories, on how to achieve excellence in music in higher education. That was a gratifying experience that developed in me an appreciation for Japanese people and Japanese culture, so I looked forward to working closely with leaders from Chubu. And indeed I enjoyed and developed close friendships with Chubu leaders, beginning with President Yamada, who was always very attentive to René and me when we visited Japan. President Yamada loved to sing karaoke and he had a lovely baritone voice — I called him the “Japanese Tony Bennett.” On one occasion he took René and me to his gentlemen’s club in 
Tokyo where he had his own pianist/accompanist. And on another occasion he invited me to his home for a formal Japanese tea ceremony. That was a special treat.

President Yamada unfortunately died very suddenly in December (several years later) and his memorial ceremony was delayed until the spring of the next year. I was invited to speak at his memorial, as the representative of Chubu’s several international partners. I was honored and delighted to do that, of course, but I needed serious coaching regarding the protocol. It was an enormous event, with several auditoriums on the Chubu campus full of people. And, unlike any American funeral or memorial ceremony, the speakers mounted a stage and addressed our remarks directly to a huge portrait of the deceased on the back wall of the stage.  It would have been helpful to have known that as I was preparing my remarks, but of course no one had thought to tell me that little detail. Consequently I was editing my remarks “on the fly” as I was delivering them. It occurred to me later that of the thousands of mourners who were present, probably only a few were conversant enough in English to have caught any glitches in my remarks.

More bothersome than that to me personally was the matter of attire. I had been told only to bring a dark suit, which I did. It was a navy blue suit, which I wore with a white shirt and plain very dark burgundy necktie.  My embarrassment stemmed from the fact that every other speaker, of whom there were five or six, was attired in a formal morning suit, which consisted of formal striped trousers, white formal shirt with winged collar and black formal bow tie. I kept thinking that my navy and burgundy must have looked like a clown outfit in comparison.  Although I don’t own a formal morning suit I certainly would have rented or purchased one had I known.

One other detail about this formal ceremony that should be mentioned is that the stage was covered with gorgeous yellow rosebuds.  It was, indeed, a beautiful setting!, which made me all the more regretful about my navy and burgundy. 

The very first trip that René and I made as representatives of Ohio University was to Japan and the Chubu Institute of Technology. We left Athens early in the morning of the day immediately following my inauguration as president of the University.  We were greeted most warmly by Chubu President Yamada and other Chubu administrators and were appropriately impressed with the high regard that they exhibited for Ohio University.  The city of Kasugai, Chubu’s home, was also home to the major Toyota manufacturing plant, and as we understood it, the Chubu Institute was originally established to help prepare engineers and other technicians for industry, including Toyota. I believe that Chubu’s relationship with Ohio University was a major factor in Chubu’s development from a technical institute into a comprehensive university. I feel confident that Ohio faculty in the liberal arts and sciences, through their activities and teaching as visiting professors at Chubu, had a profound influence on the perspectives that Chubu leaders and faculty members held about their own institution. Whatever the case, I feel confident that the relationship between Ohio University and Chubu University has benefited both institutions and their leaders profoundly and productively.

Throughout the decade of my presidency at OHIO we enjoyed many close friendships with leaders at Chubu.  During the 2003-2004 year, when we were wrapping up our University Bicentennial fundraising campaign, we at OHIO were favored with a major gift, unsolicited I might add, from Chubu University. As I recall, the gift was 100 million Yen, or about $850,000, which we used to renovate a building on the Athens campus. We named the building Yamada House International and it today remains the center for Japanese activities at Ohio University. Chubu also very generously sent cherry trees to replace a few of the 175 they had presented 25 years earlier that had not survived, plus an additional 25 to bring the total number of trees to 200 to mark the University’s Bicentennial. Chubu’s blooming cherry trees, which line the bank of the Hocking River near the Convocation Center, are a beautiful feature on OHIO’s campus every spring.

I was pleased to read recently that Ohio University had conferred an honorary degree on Atsuo Iiyoshi, who was named president of Chubu University about the time I retired from the presidency of Ohio University. My wife René and I spent a most enjoyable weekend with President Iiyoshi and his wife in the spring of 2004. We were favored to be their guests for a trip to the southern coast of Japan, where we, en route to the coast from Kasugai, took several brief detours to observe young women dive for Miki Moto pearls. The best part of the weekend trip was the opportunity to get well acquainted with President and Mrs. Iiyoshi. He was, of course, already a most distinguished scientist, having served previously as head of the National Fission Laboratory in Japan. Later, of course, Dr. Iiyoshi was appointed Chancellor and Chairman of the Board at Chubu. We felt very fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend time with the Iiyoshis on our final trip to Japan as representatives of Ohio University, and are pleased that OHIO has recognized Dr. Iiyoshi in such a significant way. He is certainly most deserving!