R.I.P. Robben Fleming, UM President '68-'78
President Fleming, who deftly guided the University through one of its more turbulent periods, recently passed away at the age of 93. Ann Arbor could have easily gone the way of Kent State in 1970. His obit can be found at U-M News Service.
While driving for the University, I had a several opportunities to meet Dr. Fleming and always found him to be a very down-to-earth, likable man; conversant on a wide range of topics, including Tiger baseball.
January 19th, 2010 at 2:39 PM ^
For anyone interested, President Fleming wrote a solid autobiography on his years as University President titled Tempests into Rainbows. The years he presided over the University were some very interesting and challenging ones, yet he handled things very well.
January 19th, 2010 at 3:15 PM ^
I was not aware of the autobiography; I'll check it out.
January 19th, 2010 at 2:43 PM ^
Dr. Fleming was, by all accounts, an exceptional president and his handling of the student demonstrations were perfect. He was also quite friendly with the newly hired Bo Schembechler, the two had lunch once a week.
January 19th, 2010 at 3:37 PM ^
in a very, very turbulent period. Back when it was a seriously-discussed thing to take over the Administration Building, or even the President's house, in the name of social protest. Stuff that would be borderlilne "terrorism" in today's much-different security-conscious world.
Fleming was a really intelligent man, and a man of good judgment. One of the nation's great experts in Labor Law.
I never think of Fleming without also thinking about his good friend and colleague on the Law School faculty, Marcus Plant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Plant
We commonly think of a whole era of Michigan sports having been defined by Don Canham and Bo Schembechler. I know that's what I think. But truth be told, there would be at least one, and maybe two names added to that very short list; Mark Plant for sure, and perhaps Robben Fleming.
January 19th, 2010 at 3:39 PM ^
After Harold Shapiro stepped down as president of the university, Fleming served as interim president for eight months before Duderstadt.